Farthing
by Jo Walton
Synopsis
An influential family's weekend party is the stage for murder in this alternative history trilogy opener set in a post-WWII England where the Nazis won. Eight years have passed since the upper-crust "Farthing Set" overthrew Winston Churchill and led Britain into a separate peace with Hitler. Now those families have gathered for a weekend retreat. Aโฆ An influential family's weekend party is the stage for murder in this alternative history trilogy opener set in a post-WWII England where the Nazis won. Eight years have passed since the upper-crust "Farthing Set" overthrew Winston Churchill and led Britain into a separate peace with Hitler. Now those families have gathered for a weekend retreat. Among them is estranged scion Lucy Kahn, who can't understand why she and her husband, David, were so enthusiastically invited. But all becomes clear when the eminent Sir James Thirkie is found murderedโwith a yellow Star of David pinned to his chest. Lucy realizes that her Jewish husband is about to be framed for the crime, an outcome that would be altogether too politically convenient, given the machinations underway in Parliament in the coming week. The Farthing Set are determined to pass laws further restricting the right to vote, and a new outcry against Jews and foreigners would suit them fine. But whoever's behind the murder and the frame-up didn't count on the principal investigator from Scotland Yard being so prone to look beyond the obviousโor his being a man with his own private reasons for sympathizing with outcasts and underdogs . . . Praise for Farthing "If le Carrรฉ scares you, try Jo Walton. Of course her brilliant story of a democracy selling itself out to fascism sixty years ago is just a mystery, just a thriller, just a fantasyโof course we know nothing like that could happen now. Don't we?" โUrsula K. Le Guin "Walton . . . crosses genres without missing a beat with this stunningly powerful alternative history set in 1949. . . . While the whodunit plot is compelling, it's the convincing portrait of a country's incremental slide into fascism that makes this novel a standout. Mainstream readers should be enthralled as well." โ Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Awards
Tone
Readers Also Enjoyed
The Dragon Republic
R.F. Kuang
Last Violent Call
Chloe Gong
Babel
R.F. Kuang
The Poppy War
R.F. Kuang
Calixta, The Vanquishers of Alhambra
Omayra Vรฉlez
Ink and Bone
Rachel Caine
Ordinary Monsters
J. M. Miro
Laughter of Carthage
Michael Moorcock
All the Dead Shall Weep
Charlaine Harris
City of Whispers
Katt Powers
The Serpent in Heaven
Charlaine Harris
Silver in the Blood
Jessica Day George
Witchery
Christopher Golden
The Last Days of New Paris
China Miรฉville
The Last Wizards' Ball
Charlaine Harris
The Wisdom of Crowds
Joe Abercrombie
The Crippled God
Steven Erikson
Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne
Brian Staveley
The Trials of Empire
Richard Swan
Hollow (Book 1 in the Crown of Hearts & Chaos series)
Caroline Peckham