A Kill in the Morning
The year is 1955. It is 14 years since Churchill died and the war against Germany ended. Britain retains her independence and is engaged in a cold war against the Nazis, a war which is about to become hot…
Alternate history novels set in a world in which the Nazis did not lose World War Two are persistently popular (and why is a fascinating question). Two recent ones – Owen Sheers’ Resistance and Guy Saville’s The Afrika Reich – are thoughtful and sophisticated as well as gripping. Newcomer Shimmin’s A Kill in the Morning is merely clever and did not, therefore, grip me at all. That is not to say the book will not be a great success. It probably will. It has an ingenious, if preposterous, plot involving a macho hero, several beautiful women, megalomaniac villains wielding monstrous weapons and a dash of Nazi black magic reminiscent of Aleister Crowley. Despite some very witty, Fleming-esque dialogue, however, Shimmin’s characters, weighed down by the plot, fail to emerge from caricature. His female characters are a particular disappointment in that, although Shimmin gives them agency, they mostly exercise it by using sex. An almost honourable exception is Molly, but her Father Ted-style Irish voice irritates.
Techno-heads will love the cars, aircraft, bombs and guns and the way Shimmin has woven his history into the actual record is ingenious and thoroughly researched, as testified by a lengthy glossary. At best, however, a beach read. And for the movie producer who moves into the villa after you and picks it up, please please don’t cast Tom Cruise.
