A kill in the morning

Format:

Book

Title:

A kill in the morning

Author:

Shimmin, Graeme, 1967- author.

ISBN:

9780857502575

Publication:

London, England : Bantam Press, [2015]

Physical Description:

379 pages : maps ; 20 cm

Contents:

Part one: Contrivance -- Part two: Confrontation -- Part three: Consequences.

Summary:

The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world. It is fourteen years since Churchill died and the Second World War ended. In occupied Europe, Britain fights a cold war against a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany. In Berlin the Gestapo is on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter, and the head of the SS is plotting to dispose of an ailing Adolf Hitler and restart the war against Britain and her empire. Meanwhile, in a secret bunker hidden deep beneath the German countryside, scientists are experimenting with a force far beyond their understanding.

Corporate Subject:

Germany. Geheime Staatspolizei -- Fiction.

Germany. Geheime Staatspolizei. (OCoLC)fst00531876

Subject(s):

Germany. Geheime Staatspolizei -- Fiction.

Assassins -- Fiction.

Conspiracies -- Fiction.

Nineteen fifties -- Fiction.

Scientists -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Genre:

Alternative histories (Fiction)

Fiction.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	Fic (sf) Shimmin, G. 2015	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

'I don't like killing, but I'm good at it. Murder isn't so bad from a distance, just shapes popping up in my scope. Close-up work though - a garrotte around a target's neck or a knife in their heart - it's not for me. Too much empathy, that's my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different . . . '

The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world. It is fourteen years since Churchill died and the Second World War ended. In occupied Europe, Britain fights a cold war against a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany.
In Berlin the Gestapo is on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter, and the head of the SS is plotting to dispose of an ailing Adolf Hitler and restart the war against Britain and her empire. Meanwhile, in a secret bunker hidden deep beneath the German countryside, scientists are experimenting with a force far beyond their understanding.

Into this arena steps a nameless British assassin, on the run from a sinister cabal within his own government, and planning a private war against the Nazis. And now the fate of the world rests on a single kill in the morning . . .

Author Notes

Graeme Shimmin was born in Manchester, and studied Physics at Durham University. His successful consultancy career enabled him to retire at 35 to an island off Donegal and start writing. He has since returned to Manchester and completed an MA in Creative Writing. The inspiration for A Kill in the Morning came from Robert Harris' alternate history novel, Fatherland , and a passion for classic spy fiction.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Shimmin delivers an old-fashioned adventure story populated with loathsome Nazi villains, a haunted antihero who says things like "I don't like killing, but I'm good at it," and beautiful women defined primarily by their sexual attractiveness and the degree to which they might be debased (one is unwillingly strapped into a leather catsuit straight out of a B movie). It's 1955 in a world where the Nazis won WWII. While Britain and Germany exist in uneasy truce, a British spy and assassin continues his own stealth campaign against the men behind the deaths of his compatriots during the war. When the head of the Secret Service is assassinated, he goes AWOL to seek revenge, not knowing that his journey will bring him face-to-face with a secret German weapon that could change the course of history in more ways than one. The meticulously researched historical details lend a gloss of refinement to the lurid pulp tale. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* In 1955, 14 years after the murder of Winston Churchill and Germany's victory in WWII, a British government agent defies orders and makes his way to Germany with murder on his mind. If he succeeds in his unauthorized mission, he'll have ended the reign of terror of Reinhard Heydrich, who, given Adolf Hitler's current ill health, is Germany's iron-fisted ruler. But Heydrich's death could tear apart the uneasy peace between Germany and England, and lead to another devastating war. So there are a lot of people on both sides who want to make sure our hero doesn't reach his target. There's more than enough here to appeal to alternate-history readers, but debut-novelist Shimmin doesn't merely tell a good story; he also creates a wonderfully imaginative alternate world, one in which the Nazis are in possession of advanced technologies, and real-life characters (Heydrich, British intelligence chief Stewart Menzies, MI6 agent Nicholas Elliott, Germany's Admiral Canaris, and Rudolf Hess, for example) mix it up with made-up heroes and villains. As in all the best alternate histories, both the past and the future hang in the balance. Hugely entertaining and, well, pretty darned brilliant.--Pitt, David Copyright 2015 Booklist