In an alternative history where Britain made peace with Hitler, 'Farthing' unfolds at a country house where a member of the Farthing Set is found murdered. The narrative alternates between Lucy, a daughter of the house, and Inspector Carmichael investigating the crime. As the investigation progresses, the story delves into the sinister aspects of the aristocratic world, the rise of fascism, and the chilling reality of a society slipping into totalitarianism. The writing style combines elements of a murder mystery, a political parable, and a reflection on class loyalties and prejudices, creating a compelling and timely narrative.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The book contains high content warnings for anti-Semitism, fascism, and themes of political and social oppression.
Has Romance?
There is a medium level of romance present, particularly in the relationship between Lucy and her Jewish husband, David.
From The Publisher:
First published in 2006, Jo Walton's Farthing was hailed as a masterpiece, a darkly romantic thriller set in an alternate postwar England sliding into fascism.
Eight years after they overthrew Churchill and led Britain into a separate peace with Hitler, the upper-crust families of the "Farthing set" are gathered for a weekend retreat. Among them is estranged Farthing scion Lucy Kahn, who can't understand why her and her husband David's presence was so forcefully requested. Then the country-house idyll is interrupted when the eminent Sir James Thirkie is found murdered-with a yellow Star of David pinned to his chest.
Lucy begins to realize that her Jewish husband is about to be framed for the crime-an outcome that would be convenient for altogether too many of the various political machinations underway in Parliament in the coming week. But whoever's behind the murder, and the frame-up, didn't reckon on the principal investigator from Scotland Yard being a man with very private reasons for sympathizing with outcasts and underdogs-and prone to look beyond the obvious as a result.
As the trap slowly shuts on Lucy and David, they begin to see a way out-a way fraught with peril in a darkening world.
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1 comment(s)
Jo Walton is a chameleon. She completely inhabits every genre (or sub-genre, rather) she chooses. The person who wrote the compelling sword and sorcery epic of Tir Tanagiri is the same person writing the philosophical powerhouse
The Just City is the same person who wrote this charming, Agatha-Christie like country house murder mystery? How is this possible? She always gets the tone just right, and here she underscores that gentle Hercule Poirot tone with a sharp edge of fascism and anti-Semitism.
In this alternate history, Churchill is overruled by a group of politicians known as the Farthing Set, who make a deal with Hitler that he can have control of the Continent as long as he leaves the British Empire alone. British Jews have a hard time of it despite their "freedom," and as the book goes on it becomes clear that Europe is full of resistance fighters and concentration camps. The book starts as a gentle sort of whodunit, a murder mystery set over a weekend at a country house filled with rich suspects. However, there is a much longer, larger con in place than one person's death, and Walton blows the story up to intercontinental proportions by the end, reminding us that an alternate history where Hitler won anything is incompatible with any kind of "Peace," which the Farthing Set believes it has won. A stark reminder that one law should apply to rich and poor alike, and anyone standing above that law leaves everyone open to the dangers of fascism.
What can you read after
Farthing?
About the Author:
JO WALTON won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer on the publication of her debut novel, The King's Peace. Her novel Tooth and Claw won the World Fantasy Award, and the novels of her Small Change sequence-Farthing, Ha'Penny, and Half a Crown-have won acclaim ranging from national newspapers to the Romantic Times Critics' Choice Award. Most recently, her novel Among Others won the Nebula Award. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.
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