Fatherland is a murder/detective novel set in an alternate Berlin where the Greater German Reich is still very much in command in the week leading up to Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday on 20 April 1964.
Xavier March, an investigator working for the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), investigates the drowing death of a high-ranking Nazi.
"It was not quite seven and Berlin was alive with possibilities the day had yet to dull.
His uniform was laid out in the bedroom: the body armour of authority.
Brown shirt, with black leather buttons. Black tie. Black breeches. Black jackboots (the rich smell of polished leather).
Black tunic: four silver buttons; three parallel silvered threads on the shoulder tabs; on the left sleeve, a red-and-white-and-black swastika armband; on the right, a diamond enclosing the gothic letter 'K', for Kriminalpolizei.
Black Sam Browne belt. Black cap with silver death's head and Party eagle. Black leather gloves.
March stared at himself in the mirror, and a Sturnbannfuhrer of the Waffen-SS stared back. He picked up his service pistol, a 9 mm Luger, from the dressing table, checked the action, and slotted it into his holster. Then he stepped out into the morning."
March discovers that someone is murdering senior Nazi party officials, and that someone turns out to be the Gestapo, which is killing off the remaining officials who planned the Holocaust to prevent any embarassment an upcoming meeting of Hitler and President Joseph P. Kennedy (John F. Kennedy's father) by ensuring that the crimes of the Nazi regime are kept secret.
"It was not quite seven and Berlin was alive with possibilities the day had yet to dull.
His uniform was laid out in the bedroom: the body armour of authority.
Brown shirt, with black leather buttons. Black tie. Black breeches. Black jackboots (the rich smell of polished leather).
Black tunic: four silver buttons; three parallel silvered threads on the shoulder tabs; on the left sleeve, a red-and-white-and-black swastika armband; on the right, a diamond enclosing the gothic letter 'K', for Kriminalpolizei.
Black Sam Browne belt. Black cap with silver death's head and Party eagle. Black leather gloves.
March stared at himself in the mirror, and a Sturnbannfuhrer of the Waffen-SS stared back. He picked up his service pistol, a 9 mm Luger, from the dressing table, checked the action, and slotted it into his holster. Then he stepped out into the morning."
March discovers that someone is murdering senior Nazi party officials, and that someone turns out to be the Gestapo, which is killing off the remaining officials who planned the Holocaust to prevent any embarassment an upcoming meeting of Hitler and President Joseph P. Kennedy (John F. Kennedy's father) by ensuring that the crimes of the Nazi regime are kept secret.
Fatherland is a fun read, if somewhat dark - but then, how could it not be, given it's premise? The book is full of incidental detail, and enough 'real' history to make the imagined one believeable. The uniforms, gear and attitudes are just icing on the cake.
Robert Harris, Fatherland; Hitchinson Press (London) 1992.
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| Fatherland's map of the "Greater German Reich' in 1964 |
Let me know if you're interested in more reviews like this one. I'll only post reviews for books I've personally enjoyed, and only books with some kind of connection to life in uniform.
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