In the Republic of the United Kingdom in 1952 the people work hard to support the communist ideals that they are exposed to. Jane Cawson is married to a doctor who deals with members of the Party and who has a glamorous ex-wife. Suspecting her husband of cheating on her with his ex, Jane goes to her house and finds her dead. Her husband is arrested and Jane starts to unravel the secret deals that he is involved with, deals that are treachery to the State but which also involve influential politicians. Naive Jane and a supportive police officer realise what is going on but can they prove anything?
The best part of this book is the setting. Rubin has imagined an alternative ending to the Second World War where D-Day was a failure and the Russians managed to reach Britain. London is segregated by a 'Berlin Wall' and Britain is the former Germany. This is very well done and creatively imagined. Beyond that the book is a fairly decent period thriller. ( )

I was in the mood for something frivolous after plodding through Book 3 of Kristin Lavransdatter, and I succumbed to impulse buying when I saw this book on the stands in the bookshop at Palmerston North.
The premise, an alternative history of postwar Britain, could have worked really well.
But alas, it's a very silly book. The plot is an awful muddle of completely unbelievable events, tangled into a plot that's hard to follow (if, that is, the reader can be bothered to invest time in trying). In a book with multiple flaws, the biggest one is that Rubin chose to narrate the book through a female character, and he doesn't seem to have any idea about how women think and behave.
I came to the conclusion that the author wrote it because he was a bit alarmed by the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn's 'democratic socialism' and wanted to show his idealistic adherents what they would be letting themselves in for. The central character Jane believes the Soviet rhetoric about a fairer society with better housing, free health care and education, but as the plot progresses and she witnesses the privileges, the corruption, and the excessive power that the Soviet leadership has, lo! she realises that it's not a utopia after all.
I left the book in the airport lounge at Napier. ( )