War Plan Crimson by Michael Cnudde
Published by Smashwords Edition on 21 June 2011
Genres: Type I - Hard
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Goodreads

Premise - Point of Divergence (POD)

In November 1934 Major General Smedley Darlinton Butler USMC was to sit down in front of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and expose those intending to overthrow the government. In 'War Plan Crimson' he never made it as the day before he was due to testify he was killed in an 'accident' that involved a very large truck.

The Story

We were lucky.

In our history, Franklin Roosevelt quietly and easily suppressed the 1933 Business Plot, a little-known attempt by a group of Wall Street barons and power brokers to overthrow and replace him with a homeland fascist government.

What if we weren't lucky?

What it the coup plotters had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and placed a homegrown Hitler in the White House? By using hitherto top military secret documents and historical research, author Michael Cnudde tells the story of The War That Almost Was.

The Review

I enjoyed this book immensely. It comes across as being solidly grounded in the history of the time, and shows just how thin the veneer of civilisation can be.

The author’s mixing of historical and fictional characters is well balanced, something that he shares with Harry Turtledove. I particularly liked the portrayal of Erwin Rommel and the role he plays in the story (as well as Rommel’s eventual reward). While many of the characters don’t survive the chaos that follows the coup, the balance between those that don’t and those who do is nicely achieved. And importantly, given how nasty the baddies are, they all end up getting their come-uppances!

Michael is telling a big story from a large number of view points, fortunately he has the knack of being able to quickly introduce a character, and to successfully build a bond between that character and the reader. In some cases this is by reinforcing the views already formed about historical characters, but more often he is introducing someone who is simply in the wrong place in the wrong time. And in this respect, I believe Michael’s ability to create characters for whom the reader cares is superior to that Harry Turtledove. 

Along these lines the death of J Edgar Hoover gave me a totally different view of the man. Talk about going out with all guns blazing!