Himmler's War
Fans of the author’s previous alternate-history novels (such as 1942) should enjoy this new one, which springs from an intriguing premise: What if Adolf Hitler had been killed in the summer of 1944, not by an assassination plot but by accident? How would “the murderous and sinister Heinrich Himmler” have responded? How would the direction of the war have changed? Readers unfamiliar with World War II history might feel at loose ends here, but those who are able to spot the divergences between actual and alternate history will be held spellbound by the author’s careful—and, it appears, militarily sound—construction of a new war and (by implication) a new twentieth century. Dialogue that rings true and sharply drawn characters (both real and fictional, on both sides of the war) add to the novel’s appeal. Conroy might not be as big a name as, say, Harry Turtledove, but he’s definitely an alternate-history writer worth getting to know. --David Pitt