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Atomic Secrets
1948.
The uneasy peace between Britain and Germany holds. War in the East sucks the economy dry, but Nazi Germany dominates Europe. Britain stands alone as they enter the atomic age.
In Dresden a brilliant engineer on the Nazi atomic programme is willing to risk everything. MI6 send David Brook to stop them from obtaining The Bomb. He must remain hidden in the paranoid, oppressive, surveillance state of Nazi Germany.
Plans in place, Brook and the insider must escape Germany, but the Kriminalpolizei are in pursuit. As they approach the border, they face a final confrontation with an ambitious Kripo officer who has tracked them down...
The uneasy peace between Britain and Germany holds. War in the East sucks the economy dry, but Nazi Germany dominates Europe. Britain stands alone as they enter the atomic age.
In Dresden a brilliant engineer on the Nazi atomic programme is willing to risk everything. MI6 send David Brook to stop them from obtaining The Bomb. He must remain hidden in the paranoid, oppressive, surveillance state of Nazi Germany.
Plans in place, Brook and the insider must escape Germany, but the Kriminalpolizei are in pursuit. As they approach the border, they face a final confrontation with an ambitious Kripo officer who has tracked them down...
339 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 8, 2023
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 8, 2023
If you were to ask what the biggest clichés of alternate history are, it seems a safe bet for someone to mention an Axis victory in World War II. That and, perhaps, their trying to acquire nuclear weapons. How do you breathe new life into those clichés or, rather, teach an old dog new tricks? John A. Hopkins makes a solid case with his alternate history thriller Atomic Secrets.
Hopkins does so by avoiding many of the microclichés involved. For starters, this isn't an all powerful Third Reich surviving to the latter 1940s. Nor is Britain part of a larger, Europe engrossing Reich. Instead, and in keeping with the late 1940s setting, a state of Cold War exists between the two. In the east, a Soviet guerilla struggle continues against Nazi occupation while things stagnate at home. Into this world, built up less through the odd nugget of information fed to the reader, Hopkins drops his thriller.
The choice of thriller likewise suits the setting well. Hopkins and his protagonist, the British spy David Brook, owe something to the classic British thriller tradition of decades past. There's the British spy abroad trope at play, as well as an exploration of what drives someone to betray their country. Finally, the novel takes us into the hunt for Brook and his contact, making readers put themselves into the shoes of their German pursuers. To the point, in fact, that their Kripo pursuers become literary scene stealers. Indeed, Atomic Secrets feels like it might have come from the pen of the likes of Frederick Forsyth, combining the nuclear shenanigans' of The Fourth Protocol or political intrigue of Icon with the manhunt aspects of The Day of the Jackal. No mean feat and all the more to Hopkins credit as an author.
The result is a compelling thriller, breathing new life into some of the biggest clichés of alternate history. And hopefully not the last we'll read of David Brook, one hopes. Hopkins, after all, has opened a door to a whole new Cold War worth of adventures.
Hopkins does so by avoiding many of the microclichés involved. For starters, this isn't an all powerful Third Reich surviving to the latter 1940s. Nor is Britain part of a larger, Europe engrossing Reich. Instead, and in keeping with the late 1940s setting, a state of Cold War exists between the two. In the east, a Soviet guerilla struggle continues against Nazi occupation while things stagnate at home. Into this world, built up less through the odd nugget of information fed to the reader, Hopkins drops his thriller.
The choice of thriller likewise suits the setting well. Hopkins and his protagonist, the British spy David Brook, owe something to the classic British thriller tradition of decades past. There's the British spy abroad trope at play, as well as an exploration of what drives someone to betray their country. Finally, the novel takes us into the hunt for Brook and his contact, making readers put themselves into the shoes of their German pursuers. To the point, in fact, that their Kripo pursuers become literary scene stealers. Indeed, Atomic Secrets feels like it might have come from the pen of the likes of Frederick Forsyth, combining the nuclear shenanigans' of The Fourth Protocol or political intrigue of Icon with the manhunt aspects of The Day of the Jackal. No mean feat and all the more to Hopkins credit as an author.
The result is a compelling thriller, breathing new life into some of the biggest clichés of alternate history. And hopefully not the last we'll read of David Brook, one hopes. Hopkins, after all, has opened a door to a whole new Cold War worth of adventures.
Displaying 1 of 1 review