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Title: SS-GB

Author: Len Deighton

Narrator: James Lailey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-15-15

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In February 1941 British Command surrendered to the Nazis. Churchill has been executed, the King is in 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.

But 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.

This is a spy story quite different from any other. Only Deighton, with his flair for historical research and his narrative genius, could have written it.

Critic Reviews:

"A brilliant picture of Britain under German rule." (Sunday Telegraph)

"One of Deighton's best. Apart from his virtues as a storyteller, his passion for researching his backgrounds gives his work a remarkable factual authority. With Bomber and Fighter he established himself as an expert on a period...the authority of these books seem absolute." (The Observer)

"Len Deighton is the Flaubert of the contemporary thriller writers...there can be little doubt that this is much the way things would have turned out if the Germans had won the war." (Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement)

"Deighton is a tremendous weaver of tales...action is all, and splendidly done. A master of fictional espionage." (Daily Mail)

"The poet of the spy story." (Sunday Times)

"For sheer readability he has no peer." (The Standard)

Members Reviews:

Interesting but I can't help feeling a bit disappointed

What made the experience of listening to SS-GB the most enjoyable?

James Lailey's reading. I also have his reading of The Ipcress File by the same author and he did such a good job with that so I felt sure he would do a good job with this one too. He did but this book gave him less scope as the characterisation is weaker and gave him less scope for the sardonic humour that he was able to bring to Ipcress.

What was one of the most memorable moments of SS-GB?

The earlier sections were stronger as they were more atmospheric and Deighton did a very good job of recreating the mood of London under Nazi rule. It then rather tailed off as the lack of characterisation became more obvious as the book went on. It also became too embroiled with so much in-fighting between the various Nazi and resistance factions and police man just trying to do his job that I stopped trying to work out where we were and who was fighting against whom.

What does James Lailey bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you had only read the book?

He has a lovely voice and gives distinct characterisation. His women's voices are just right and he did a good job with the accents.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I did find the ending unepxectedly moving but it was rather spoilt by being rather rushed. Deighton spent a lot of time setting up the various factions and then seemed suddenly to remember that the opening scene had involved a murder and the solution to that seemed rather tacked on.

Any additional comments?

This was, I believe, one of the earliest 'what if Hitler had won the war' novels. I had been curious about it for some time, I am glad to gave read it and I think it is worth my four stars.