Having watched the
recent BBC adaptation I was interested to read the book and see if
the flaws in the TV version were there in the original.
Please note there
will be some spoilers …
The book, like the
TV, begins with an interesting exploration of the relationship
between Detective Inspector Archer and the Nazi authorities now in
charge. As part of the murder squad Archer separates his work from
any agenda of the Nazis. His position is that murder is still murder,
his job is to find the truth, and the truth doesn’t change
depending on who is in power… however as the story unfolds this
certainty begins to fall away – truth starts to look a lot more
fluid.
But then somewhere
along the way the novel, like the TV, seems to get completely lost –
there is a plot to liberate the King from the tower of London, Archer
ends up the driver of an ambulance that bundles the King into the
back and drives out the open gates – only to break down and leave
them in the midsts of a French farce pushing the King up the Strand
in a wheelchair before ending up somewhere in the South West having a
shoot out on the beach.
All the flaws of the
TV adaptation are there in black and white…
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