The Darkest Hour: A Novel - Softcover

Schumacher, Tony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062339370 ISBN 13: 9780062339379

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2015

Synopsis

A crackling, highly imaginative thriller debut in the vein of W.E.B. Griffin and Philip Kerr, set in German-occupied London at the close of World War II, in which a hardened British detective jeopardizes his own life to save an innocent soul and achieve the impossible—redemption.

London, 1946. The Nazis have conquered the British, and now occupy Great Britain, using brutality and fear to control its citizens. John Henry Rossett, a decorated British war hero and former police sergeant, has been reassigned to the Office of Jewish Affairs. He now answers to the SS, one of the most powerful and terrifying organizations in the Third Reich.

Rossett is a man accustomed to obeying commands, but he’s now assigned a job he did not ask for—and cannot refuse: rounding up Jews for deportation, including men and women he’s known his whole life. But they are not the only victims, for the war took Rossett’s wife and son, and shattered his own humanity.

Then he finds Jacob, a young Jewish child, hiding in an abandoned building, who touches something in Rossett that he thought was long dead.

Determined to save the innocent boy, Rossett takes him on the run, with the Nazis in pursuit. But they are not the only hunters following his trail. The Royalist Resistance and the Communists want him, too. Each faction has its own agenda, and Rossett will soon learn that none of them can be trusted . . . and all of them are deadly. 

About this title

From the Back Cover:

London, 1946. The Nazis have won the war and now occupy Great Britain, using fear to control its citizens. John Henry Rossett, a decorated British war hero, is one of those unlucky souls. He's a man accustomed to obeying commands, but he's now assigned a job he didn't ask for and knows he cannot refuse: rounding up Jews for deportation, including men and women he's known his whole life.

Robbed of his family by a Resistance bomb, and robbed of his humanity by the work he is forced to do, fate suddenly presents Rossett with an unexpected challenge that could change everything. He finds someone hiding in an abandoned building and is faced with a momentous decision—to do something or to look the other way. Yet whatever Rossett does, he will be pushed into a place where he could endanger all he holds dear.

About the Author:

Tony Schumacher is a native of Liverpool, England. He is the author of The Darkest Hour and The British Lion, and was a finalist for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 2016. He has written for The Guardian and the Huffington Post, and he is a regular contributor to BBC Radio and London's LBC Radio. He has been a policeman, stand-up comedian, bouncer, jeweler, taxi driver, perfume salesman, actor, and garbage collector, among others. He currently lives outside Liverpool.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062339370
• ISBN 13: 9780062339379
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464