BOOK REVIEW

Farthing by Jo Walton. Nebula Award nominee.

(Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) In 1949, Lucy and her husband David reluctantly accept an invitation to spend the weekend at Farthing, her parents' country estate. It is summer in England: time to relax outdoors and enjoy the post-war prosperity.   

However, David is Jewish, and Lucy's cruel relatives have always snubbed him. Perhaps the insistent invitation is a gesture of reconciliation? Perhaps not. Before the weekend is done, someone murders a guest, and pins a Jewish star to the body.  Obviously someone wants to frame David.

In Farthing, this isn't the 1949 that you know! Here, the English nobles have brokered a peace with the Nazis.  The Churchill government slinks away in bitter disgrace.  President Charles Lindbergh isolates the United States.  Hitler and Stalin battle to control the Continent while exterminating the Jews.   

The chapters alternate between the flighty ramblings of Lucy and the grim humor of the analytical Inspector Carmichael sent to solve the crime. A smart man, Carmichael immediately knows that David is innocent.  Even so, he must confine David and all the guests (several seething and arrogant nobles) to the estate to interview them and dig for clues.

The murder case is further complicated when a sniper fires upon Lucy and her father who are riding on the grounds. The sniper is revealed to have Bolshevik ties! The news leaks out.  This leads to an outcry from the British public that Jews and Communists are seeking to overthrow the government.  Carmichael's boss back at Scotland Yard leans on him hard to solve the case as fast as possible – any suspect will do.

The British fascists are poised for take-over at the upcoming election.  They favor martial law, starting with mandatory I.D. cards specifying a person's religion.  The panicked British public thinks that's fine as long as they're safe from anarchy. Who cares if the Jews get persecuted, and the homosexuals are next?

Inspector Carmichael cares.  He has been excruciatingly careful to hide his relationship with his live-in lover Jack, a soldier he served with during the Second World War. Besides, he is an excellent cop and he loves his work. He can't stand being ordered to arrest David and doom the poor man to the gallows just to close the murder case before the election.

Meanwhile, Lucy develops a fall-back plan. In the opening pages of Farthing, she sounds like an annoyingly shallow featherhead; now she deepens into a determined person reaching beyond her sheltered upbringing to save her husband. She decides which items such as her Mummy's jewelry that she can steal and sell, and which train tickets to buy to throw the authorities off their trail.

Farthing really caught my interest.  It reminded me somewhat of Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, another good read that imagined Charles Lindbergh elected President of the United States.  You can find Farthing on Amazon.com through this link:

Farthing

Noteworthy Links:   Wonderquest - Science Q/A! The Connection - Tech blog! Author site - John the Eunuch Historical Mystery series, Cozy Mystery List for all your cozy mystery needs, Obsidian Bookshelf - reviews of gay-themed fiction.
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