Queen High (UK) / Queen Wallis (US)
This is the sequel to C. J. Carey’s well-received 2021 novel, Widowland (reviewed in HNR 97). England in 1955 remains under the dominion of a Nazi-controlled Germany, as is most of Europe. Britain had sued for peace in 1940 and accepted German suzerainty. Rose Ransom returns in the sequel, one of the members of the elite female caste (known as Gelis, in honour of Adolf Hitler’s niece). She works in the London Library, going through works of fiction and literature to amend and delete works that enshrine strong and capable female characters, as this contradicts the party line that effaces females in this counterfactual Britain.
The country is recovering from the shocking assassination of Adolf Hitler two years ago (known euphemistically as The Event) in which Rose played a leading role, and by surprising fortune survived the investigation, her reputation seemingly unblemished as a leading member of the cultural elite. She is given a new task of infiltrating a group of poets and enthusiasts who meet illegally to read and share the perceived lethally subversive nature of poetry. King Edward VIII died in 1953, and before a momentous state visit of President Eisenhower, Rose is also tasked to visit the widowed Queen Wallis and gauge her state of mind and reliability as rumours swirl of her increasingly eccentric behaviour.
As with the first book in the series, this is well-written and wonderfully researched, with a high element of plausibility that fascinates the reader to speculate what a Nazi-dominated Britain might have looked like. Elements in the plot are rather sensational, and there are phrases that would not have been in common usage in 1950s England, such as “mood music,” while the trite “back in the day” occurs four times in a few pages. Nevertheless, this is an excellent read, and the story is left open for a possible third outing for Rose.
