From Booklist
Sansom is known primarily for his series of historical novels featuring sixteenth-century lawyer Matthew Shardlake, but Winter in Madrid (2008), a spy thriller set in 1940, brought the author some serious acclaim. More is sure to follow with this gripping alternate-history story set in England in the early 1950s. David Fitzgerald, a civil servant, is a member of the Resistance, a group dedicated to expelling the Nazis from England (in Sansom’s version of twentieth-century history, England surrendered to Hitler in May 1940). When David is given a very delicate assignment—extricate scientist Frank Muncaster from a mental hospital before the Nazis discover the potentially world-altering secrets in Muncaster’s possession—he doesn’t count on being pursued by a relentless Gestapo agent, Gunther Hoth, who will stop at nothing to silence Muncaster. A race-against-time thriller set against an imaginative and internally consistent historical backdrop, the novel should definitely appeal to fans of alternate history, especially the WWII novels of Harry Turtledove or Robert Conroy, and, of course, Robert Harris’ classic Fatherland (1992). --David Pitt
Review
"Exciting . . . What elevates Dominion above sheer white-knuckle entertainment ... are Samson's empathetic, complex characters and the frighteningly believable alternative world he creates.
Dominion's pages fly by in a frenzy, but this is a book that lingers." (3.5/4 stars)—
Jocelyn McClurg,
USA Today"C.J. Sansom has long been one of my favorite writers, but DOMINION may be his most richly imagined book yet: it's a wonderful example of what the novel can do--a through-the-looking-glass glimpse into a world that might have been, and almost was."—
Kate Atkinson, New York Times bestselling author of Life After Life"Dominion is terrific. And no, this isn't one of those publisher-sponsored blurbs. I just fell in love with it. Nice and long, too."—
Stephen King"DOMINION will make you cry...highly recommended...a wonderful novel."—
Nancy Pearl,
KUOW public radio (Seattle)"A highly charged and deeply inventive literary thriller . . . An exhilarating page-turner . . . Alternative history on a grand scale."—
Malcolm Forbes,
Minneapolis Star Tribune"Sansom has an original and impressive voice. Rich details add depth to the story. Absorbing and richly conceived."—
Adam Woog,
Seattle Times"Gripping . . . A race-against-time thriller set against an imaginative and internally consistent historical backdrop, the novel should definitely appeal to fans of alternate history, especially the WWII novels of Harry Turtledove or Robert Conroy, and, of course, Robert Harris' classic Fatherland."—
Booklist"The best novel of its kind since Robert Harris's Fatherland."—
Charles Cumming, New York Times bestselling author of The Trinity Six"Long and engaging. Rich and densely plotted. All too real."—
Kirkus (starred review)"Intriguing. Page-turning. Delicious."—
Library Journal (featured review)"Exciting, sophisticated, and moving. There will be few better historical novels published this year."—
Nick Rennison, The Times (UK)"An inventented mid-20th-century Britain that has the intricate detail and delineation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth."—
Mark Lawson, The Guardian (UK)"Masterly."—
Boyd Tonkin, The Independent (UK)"Sansom has an unerring sense of pace and a deft historical touch."—
The New Yorker"C.J. Sansom can lay claim to a place among the most distinguished of modern historical novelists."—
P.D. James See all Editorial Reviews