By WF Logan
Published by Heart of the Bruce
264 pages ISBN 9781739665913
Publication date June 2022
I was sent a paperback copy of the novel to participate in its Blog Tour. Many thanks to Heart of the Bruce, Mr Logan and Team LitPR for allowing me to participate in the tour.
From the blurb
When saving a life in 1946 Alabama, Amish giant Konrad took one in return and must run before the electric chair claims him. In New York, Nazi propaganda fools him into jumping on a ship to Berlin, capital of the Third Reich. In 1965, at Gothengau, an SS-run colony in Ukraine, a terrorist rocket attack on Berlin compels soldier-farmer Konrad to focus on his duty: commanding an SS convict battalion. He must flex his muscle for the armed forces or the Holocaust’s perpetrators–his superiors, colleagues, and neighbours in Ukraine. Survival means playing both sides, but will the fellow German-Americans he arrived with 20 years earlier join him in his fight and in the process, trigger the dawn of a Fourth Reich?
Synopsis
Konrad is a giant Amish man compelled to flee the circus freak show he was employed at to save his hide. If he sticks around, he will face the electric chair. He really wants to get back to his roots and settle down working the land as a farmer and raising a family. Swayed by a propaganda film Konrad is enticed to the German Reich and the prospect of settling in the lebensraum set aside for returning Aryans in Ukraine.
On the ship over he meets Petra, a child who is already singing star and whose mother is pushing to fame and fortune and Karl a young man looking for new start.
In the German Colony of Gothengau Konrad achieves his dream of a farm, a wife, and a family. He also serves the Reich as the commander of the 500th Airborne division which is made up of convict soldiers. He is not blind to what he sees and is appalled to discover the reality of the final solution. Hitler may be dead, but is succeeded as Fuhrer by Heinrich Himmler with the murderous Reinhard Heydrich as his deputy, so his brand of National Socialism continues.
There is growing discontent, not just from Konrad, and the time feels right for regime change. It’s time to sweep away the old order and install a new one lead this time by a good man. That man is thought to be Wernher von Braun the brilliant rocket scientist who leads the technological advances in the Reich and is on the cusp of putting man into space.
Any coup is dangerous, and the first step will be at Wewelsberg Castle. Himmler is obsessed by the occult and looks to the priests based there for omens. They need to kill the leader of the ‘new religion’ the Odinist High Priest Drachenblut and install the conspirators’ own man, Karl. Then they can tackle Himmler and Heydrich.
My thoughts
Alternative histories are periodically popular, especially those set post World War II, following a Nazi victory. Where is novel is slightly different is that there is a rapprochement between the British, who keep their Empire, and the German’s who defeat the Russians and achieve their lebensraum. The war did not escalate so the USA and Japan did not become combatants. This leaves a fascinating dynamic with Wernher von Braun and the rocket scientists remaining in Germany and leading the way with technological advances and reaching for the stars. In this novel it is Himmler not Kennedy who produces the ‘we do not do this because it is easy, but because it is hard…’ speech.
Another aspect that sets this novel apart is the use of real persons within the plot narrative. Usually in these alternative histories real people are referenced and worked around, but here they are central to the plot and play a significant role. We have Richard Baer the Auschwitz I commandant seemingly unrepentant and enjoying life as a quasi-cowboy as Gauleiter for the Gothengau Colony. There is also Wernher von Braun the would-be replacement Fuhrer and the famous pilot Hannah Reitsch being a great friend of Petra. Bold writing but I guess the relatives will not be complaining.
The story moves along a good pace, with perhaps the ending feeling a little rushed when two big surprises are revealed. It left me thinking that there may well be a sequel sometime in the future.
The central character Konrad is a brave and honest man. Shocked by what he learns about the Final Solution and seeing the so-called ‘guest workers’ who are nothing more than slaves he resolves to do something about it. As the reader discovers there is a keen motivation here and it is not merely hatred for the Reich in which he also sees some good. He cannot affect change alone though.
The subject matter has a dark core, the Nazi atrocities are mentioned but not dwelt upon which is quite sensible. We have the ideal hate figure in Josef Mengele the ‘Angel of Death’ the doctor who experimented on so many inmates in Auschwitz. Many of these experiments, as it is remarked upon were pointless and barbaric, not moving scientific knowledge on one iota. The interactions between Baer and Mengele are quite chilling.
Naturally, the subject leaves limited scope for humour to be introduced but there are some nice witty pieces included. The Gauleiter’s deputy declaring ‘this isn’t a drop-in centre for occultists’, the youngest Vestal Virgin asking ‘why am I the only real virgin’ on discovering the truth and the vision of a Gestapo officer in black silk pyjamas embroidered with SS runes raised a chuckle.
The Gothengau Colony is an exciting and highly imaginative ‘what if’ alternative history of the post WWII period.
The author
Originally from Salford, Greater Manchester, William spent formative years living in the Shetland Islands where his father worked on the oil terminal. The topography inspired a passion for geology that years later, William hoped to pursue while at Cambridge University. Colour-blindness proved to be an obstacle, so he switched fields and graduated with a degree in Computer Science.
A trip to Israel in his late teens to volunteer on a kibbutz proved life-changing. There he met Holocaust survivors and heard their first-hand accounts. He settled there, married, and had two children. William was seriously injured by a car whilst standing on the pavement near his home in Israel and spent months in hospital recovering. Now at a crossroads, he interviewed with spy agency Mossad, and when asked to propose a possible undercover operation, he impressed them with his powerful storytelling and imagination. The life of a writer was more to his liking than a career in spycraft.
He returned to Europe and worked as a software engineer and consultant in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, and Mallorca. He and his second wife – a native of New York City – lived for several years in the old town centre of Heidelberg, Germany, with its haunting vestiges of its Nazi past. Following a visit to the “Nazi Castle” Wewelsburg, William was inspired to apply the computer science concept of graph theory to the idea of forming associated relationships and plot points. He left the technology sector to focus on realising his dream of writing a novel.
Whilst working on his novel, he worked as a maths tutor, taught computer coding to children, volunteered to help the elderly learn basic computer skills, and became a certified mindfulness meditation coach. He now lives in London with his New York-born wife. He speaks fluent Dutch and has a working knowledge of Hebrew and German.
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