Ha'penny

In Ha'penny, England has completed its slide into fascist dictatorship. The last hopes of democracy seem extinguished. Then a bomb explodes in a London suburb. The brilliant but compromised Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard is assigned the case. What he finds leads him to a conspiracy of peers and communists - of staunch King-and-Country patriots and hardened IRA gunmen - to murder the Prime Minister and his ally, Adolf Hitler.Against a background of domestic espionage and suppression, a band of idealists blackmails an actress who holds the key to the Fuhrer's death. From the ha'penny seats in the theatre to the ha'pennys that cover dead men's eyes, the conspiracy and the investigation swirl inexorably to a stunning conclusion. In Ha'penny, England has completed its slide into fascist dictatorship. The last hopes of democracy seem extinguished. Then a bomb explodes in a London suburb. The brilliant but compromised Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard is assigned the case. What he finds leads him to a conspiracy of peers and communists - of staunch King-and-Country patriots and hardened IRA gunmen - to murder the Prime Minister and his ally, Adolf Hitler. Against a background of domestic espionage and suppression, a band of idealists blackmails an actress who holds the key to the Fuhrer's death. From the ha'penny seats in the theatre to the ha'pennys that cover dead men's eyes, the conspiracy and the investigation swirl inexorably to a stunning conclusion In 1949, eight years after the Peace with Honor was negotiated between Great Britain and Nazi Germany, England has completed its slide into fascist dictatorship. The last hopes of democracy seem extinguished. Then a bomb explodes in a London suburb. The brilliant, but compromised Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard is assigned the case. What he finds leads him to a conspiracy of peers and communists - of staunch King-and-country patriots and hardened IRA gunmen - to murder the Prime Minister and his ally, Adolf Hitler. In this sequel to Farthing, Inspector Carmichael has just come off the Farthing case and has been assigned to a bombing which killed leading actress Lauria Gilmore. Meanwhile Viola Lark has been chosen to act Hamlet in a gender-switching production of the play following Gilmore's untimely death and is drawn into a plot to kill Hitler at the opening night of the play, along with Prime Minister Mark Normanby, the lead figure in the increasingly fascistic government DARK, ADDICTIVE, AWARD-WINNING ALT-HISTORY: THE SECOND IN JO WALTON'S SMALL CHANGE TRILOGY