Dominion

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Although interacting with the characters’ story, the overarching political plot does not reply upon their actions. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle for ever. To release this Frank Muncaster, Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secret spy for the Resistance, is sent to Birmingham in an attempt to rescue him and get him out of the country. This is an alternative vision of 50s Great Britian after the war, as if Churchill did not take power and we do not win the war in 1945. And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men .

The romantic entanglement, for instance, that Sansom introduces to complicate the life of the leading character seemed manufactured rather than organic. I'd read all of this author's Shardlake novels and enjoyed them so decided I would read some of his others.The strangest and most problematic part of the book is an appendix titled “Historical Notes” which come across as a pure polemic; in which the author lays out his own modern political beliefs in regard to current issues – primarily Scottish Independence, “Far larger, and more dangerous, is the threat to all of Britain posed by the Scottish National Party, which now sits in power in the devolved government in Edinburgh. The far right in Europe is active in the 2020s which makes this novel as relevant now as when it was written. I liked the mix of fiction and real characters and there is the real feeling of a less benign GB than the one we are used to post-war.

David is drafted by the Resistance to find out what the secret a patient in a mental hospital, an old school classmate is keeping and if possible get him out of England. But leaving it mysterious wouldn't draw so much attention to the enormous mcguffin shaped plot hole.Dense with detail that makes its portrayal of everyday life so vivid, the action starts slowly, but by the end, the tension is almost unbearable.