Ha'penny (Small Change)

With “understated prose and deft characterizations” a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author's imagines post-WWII England as a fascist regime (Publishers Weekly).In 1941 the European war ended in the Farthing Peace, a rapprochement between Britain and Nazi Germany. The balls and banquets of Britain's upper class never faltered, while British ships ferried “undesirables” across the Channel to board the cattle cars headed east.Peter Carmichael is commander of the Watch, Britain's distinctly British secret police. It's his job to warn the Prime Minister of treason, to arrest plotters, and to discover Jews. The midnight knock of a Watchman is the most dreaded sound in the realm.Now, in 1960, a global peace conference is convening in London, where Britain, Germany, and Japan will oversee the final partition of the world. Hitler is once again on British soil. So is the long exiled Duke of Windsor—and the rising gangs of “British Power” streetfighters, who consider the Government “soft,” may be the former king's bid to stage a coup d'état.Amidst all this, two of the most unlikely persons in the realm will join forces to oppose the fascists: a debutante whose greatest worry until now has been where to find the right string of pearls, and the Watch Commander himself. In 1941 the European war ended in the Farthing Peace, a rapprochement between Britain and Nazi Germany. The balls and banquets of Britain's upper class never faltered, while British ships ferried undesirables across the Channel to board the cattle cars headed east. Peter Carmichael is commander of the Watch, Britain's distinctly British secret police. It's his job to warn the Prime Minister of treason, to arrest plotters, and to discover Jews. The midnight knock of a Watchman is the most dreaded sound in the realm. Now, in 1960, a global peace conference is convening in London, where Britain, Germany, and Japan will oversee the final partition of the world. Hitler is once again on British soil. So is the long exiled Duke of Windsor and the rising gangs of British Power streetfighters, who consider the Government soft and may be the former king's bid to stage a coup dtat. Amidst all this, two of the most unlikely persons in the realm will join forces to oppose the fascists: a debutante whose greatest worry until now has been where to find the right string of pearls, and the Watch Commander himself. 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 In This Alternative History Sequel To Ha'penny, Two Of The Most Unlikely Persons In The Realm Will Join Forces To Oppose The Fascists: A Debutante Whose Greatest Worry Until Now Has Been Where To Find The Right String Of Pearls, And The Commander Of Britain's Distinctly British Secret Police, The Watch. Jo Walton. Sequel To: Farthing And Ha'penny. A Tom Doherty Associates Book. In an alternate world where the second world war ended with the Farthing Peace in 1941, two unlikely persons struggle to oppose the fascists who threaten the world in 1960