Friday, October 03, 2008

Does Deighton Love This Series as Much as I Do?

I used to think that Len Deighton’s SS-GB (1978) was the best thing ever written (or filmed) about a Nazi-occupied England. But now I’m not so sure, as Welsh novelist Jo Walton brings her amazing “Small Change” trilogy (Farthing, Ha’penny) to a smashing finish with Half a Crown. This latest book sends Peter Carmichael, the former Scotland Yard detective who hides an important, life-threatening personal fact about himself, and who now heads a secret police group known as the Watch, to a peace conference in London headed by Adolf Hitler--in 1960.

2 comments:

Paul Bishop said...

Thanks for this post. I've ordered up the first in the series and am looking forward to starting the trilogy.

Tom said...

Walton is a gifted author; I've been reading her since her first novels.

Her ability to characterize and build credible worlds are remarkable.