K is for Killing

What if.. The USA got a fascist government during the depression. 10 years later the country is a dictatorship with ghettos, lynchings, slavery and concentration camps. By 1940, the US government is negotiating a pact with Nazi Germany. A British SOE agent is sent in by submarine to assassinate a key person in the White House... Like most good writers of speculative fiction, Easterman's interest lie not in creating a mathematically near-correct extrapolation of the future (or, as here, an alternate past) - but in creating a warped mirror image of our here-now. Easterman writes THRILLERS. Even if they often have a fantastic element (and are all the better for it), his affilament with other genres is circumstantial. As a thriller, "K is for Killing" is a genuine page turner. As Alternate History, it's effective. As a cautionary tale, it's chilling. I'll withold one star for a slightly flawed ending (no spoilers!), but I'll also recommend it heartily.

This was chilling to read during the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the climate of prejudice, judgmental attitudes, fear, bigotry, 'brainwashedness', loss of rights, and intolerance. It looks to me like US going that direction (as it is in the book) fast. Yes, I'm a US citizen

I enjoyed this book very much. In fact, I couldn't put it down and was somewhat satisfied by the ending. Rather than creating an America with concentration camps and reinstituted slavery however, I could more imagine an America with very much more anti-semitism and more racism. Remember, America in the 1930's and later had a Jim Crow South and Jews banned from certain employment opportunities and an indifference to the Holocaust in certain quarters. With an "America First" mentality and a fascist world, I for one could imagine a facist-leaning America more than I could imagine a Nazi America. That being said, the author tells the story powerfully. While I agree with a prior reviewer that the Catholic-related ending seems strange and I could not understand why "Our Hero" does not complete his assignment when he has a brief chance, this books authenticity gave me the chills at times. I would like to read the Judas Testament next, as I am now totally hooked on Alternative History, having previously read What If and Almost America.

A quite good alternate history, in which fascists come to power in the US in the 1930s. Period detail handled fairly well, although the plot is more melodramatic than it needs to be. However, the whole novel is built on a faulty premise that, to an extent, undermines the work. In this universe, Charles Lindberg ran on a KuKluxKlan ticket for President in 1932 and won, thus ushering in a fascist regime. However, in 1932, Lindberg was 30 years old, five years too young to have been eligible to run for the presidency. Ironically, speculative fiction, more than most genres, cannot afford this kind of error.

I found K to be a good read. I`am surprised that there is only one review, and a highly inaccurate one at that! Must have wanted the free $50 voucher, without even going to the trouble of reading the book in the first place! The book is not about a German conquest of the United States. It is set in 1940, against the backdrop of the Ku Klux Klan taking power in the United States, under Charles Lindbergh, who defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 Presidential elections. By 1940 the United States is a police-state with more concentration camps than Nazi Germany, with whom it is a sworn ally, against Britain and the Soviet Union. We also meet John Edgar Hoover, who is in charge of the FBIS (Federal Bureau of Internal Security) which is the USA's equivalent of Nazi Germany's SS. In this alternate KKK-run America the Black's have been re-enslaved and the Jew's are Public Enemy No.1, as they were in Hitler's Germany. The plot of the story is basically the story of John Ridgeforth, a British agent, who has been sent into this alternate America to assasinate David Stephenson, the Vice-President. Who is on the verge of shunting President Lindbergh aside, becoming president himself and bringing the United States into the war on Germany's side and crushing Britain between them. Whether he succeeds or not, i`am not about to reveal, for fear of ruining the book for those who may be thinking about buying it. The book is a good read for those with an interest in alternate history and it does go a good way to explaining how a few small changes in 1920's America could have made the scenario of this book into a reality! Which would have seen that we would all be living in a very different world today!