WHAT would have happened if Hitler’s air force had won the Battle of Britain and the British were forced to surrender in the face of the overwhelming forces lined up against them?
That’s the intriguing question posed by one of the best thriller writers of modern times, Len Deighton, whose novel SS-GB is now on the Library shelves, together with the DVD of the excellent BBC-made television series of the same name.
Also new to the Library is a politcal satire written over 80 years ago that has striking relevance to events happening in the US today.
Secrets are at the heart of two other titles under the spotlight, Diane Chamberlain’s Pretending to Dance and The House on Bellevue Gradens by Rachel Hore.
SS-GB
by Len Deighton
IN FEBRUARY 1941 the British surrender to the Nazis. Churchill iß executed, the King sent to the tower and the SS are in Whitehall…
For nine months Britain has been occupied – a blitzed, depressed and dingy country. However, it’s ‘business as usual’ at Scotland Yard run by the SS when Detective Inspector Archer is assigned to a routine murder case. Life must go on.
When SS Standartenfuhrer Huth arrives from Berlin with orders from the great Himmler himself to supervise the investigation, the resourceful Archer finds himself caught up in a high-level, all-action, espionage battle.
Also available is the DVD of the BBC television series based on the novel (SS-GB DS381).
It Can’t Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis
A VAIN, outlandish, anti-immigrant, fear-mongering demagogue runs for president of the United States and wins, Sinclair Lewis’s chilling 1935 bestseller is the story of Buzz Windrip, who promises poor, angry voters that he will make America proud and prosperous once more, but takes the country down a far darker path.
As the new regime slides into authoritarianism, newspaper editor Doremus Joseph can’t believe it will last – but is he right ? This cautionary tale of liberal complacency in the face of populist tyranny shows it can happen here.
It Can’t Happen Here remains a uniquely-important, shockingly-prescient novel that’s as fresh and contemporary as today’s news.
Pretending to Dance
by Diane Chamberlain
MOLLY ARNETTE and her husband live in San Diego, where they hope to adopt a baby. But the process terrifies her. As the background checks begin, Molly worries that secrets from her North Carolina childhood will resurface and destroy not only her chance at adoption, but her marriage as well.
She ran away from her family 20 years ago after a devastating event left her distrustful of those she loved; her mother, the woman who raised her and who, despite Molly claiming otherwise, is very much alive; her birth mother, whose mysterious presence raised so many issues, and the father she adored, whose death sent her running from the small community of Morrison Ridge.
The House on Bellevue Gardens
by Rachel Hore
THROUGH THE imposing front door of Number 11 is a place of peace, sanctuary… and secrets. It is home to Leonie, once a model in the 60s; she came to the house to escape a destructive marriage and now, out of gratitude, she opens her house to others in need.
Rosa, Stef and Rick are running from their own problems. They have all found their way to Leonie’s home, each seeking refuge and searching for a new start.
But then Leonie discovers that the house which has provided sanctuary for so many is under threat. Can she rescue the place that saved her all those years ago?
DVD Corner
Maigret
DT556
The first televised series of Maigret was shown on our screens in 1960 to 1963 and starred Rupert Davies as the legendary French detective Jules Maigret. Now we have Rowan Atkinson as a very plausible Maigret starring in two separate investigations, Maigret Sets A Trap and Maigret’s Dead Man based on the novels by Georges Simeon.