Atomic Secrets

The great thing about this story is the world it inhabits. It’s not our world, in which the Allies won a decisive military victory in WWII, neither is it the dystopia of, for example, The Man in the High Castle in which Germany won. Instead this is ironically the world of which Hitler dreamed, with Nazi Germany dominant across Europe, and an uneasy truce with Britain and America. The Germany the story paints is a clever amalgam of the Nazi state, and how West Germany evolved after the war.

In 1948 the Allies have the atomic bomb, and Germany is making substantial efforts to create their own. When an unexpected contact provides the opportunity for MI6 to sabotage that programme they have to take it.

The story reflects reality in clever ways. Britain really did attack the German nuclear weapons programme, most famously through the Telemark raids on the Norwegian heavy water plant. In this story, however, a more subtle approach is required, and the author cleverly adapts an attack vector actually used against a rogue atomic programme in our own century. While this is a work of fiction the technical elements are largely correct and clearly explained.

At one side of this tale are a group of British spies, operating under the cover of building trade relationships with Germany. Although not infallible they are dedicated and capable. On the other side are several officers of the Kriminalpolizei, the German police’s detective force. They are also honest and competent, the author avoiding the trope of the indolent or dishonest police officer and building some genuine sympathy. You want the British spies to succeed, but you also want this group of police officers to survive and thrive.

Between these poles sits a mixed cast of other characters each with their own agendas, developing rivalries different from, but not unlike those in the real cold war.

This is a relatively short book and the story rips along quite quickly, action and investigation developing quickly side by side. The Italianate denouement when it comes would fit right into an episode of Zen, with the agreed explanation and resulting punishments and rewards bearing a limited relationship to the truth, but given your ambivalent feelings for many of the German characters it feels quite satisfactory.

Amazon now labels this “A David Brook Novel”, and it is quite possible that the surviving central characters on both sides could re-appear. I would very much enjoy that.

In the interests of full disclosure I note that the author approached me to request a review, and provided a free copy of the book for that purpose, however the review above is very much my own.