die Stunde X

"It is 1994, London, in the German State of Great Britain.

Jerome Varley witnesses his father arrested by the Geheime Staatspolizei, otherwise known as the Gestapo. Powerless to do anything to save his father's life, he becomes sucked into the world of freedom fighters, battling against the brutal Nazi regime.

Meanwhile, the Russo-American Pact are working with the freedom fighters. They have received word that the Führer is due to visit the German State of Great Britain. The freedom fighters decide to despatch their best assassin to kill him.

But none of them are aware that they have become unwitting pawns in a secret Nazi plot to seize power. As zero hour – die stunde X – approaches, the future of the German Reich, of the entire world, hangs in the balance."

Amazon Kindle version

I wrote "die Stunde X" when I was in my twenties. The lead character, Jerome, is also in his twenties. I suppose, looking back at it now, it's a piece of Young Adult fiction, the tale of a young man trying to find a path to the future, surrounded by older people. The book introduced his girlfriend, a German, Ellen Brauchitsch, and one of the subplots dealt with their complex relationship. I originally called the novel "Heil Fuhrer", after the salutation Nazis used within the book, but when I rediscovered the manuscript (rejected by publishers back in the 1990s) in 2007, it seemed better to change the title. Die Stunde X equates to "zero hour". Given the pace of the book, and the main plot, it seemed a more appropriate title. I have to confess that this book was barely re-edited when I read it again in 2007, and I'm loath to re-read it again, because it's sure to be full of quaint juvenile passages and unspeakable errors. I was still trying to find a voice and style at that age. But as a first foray into the genre, it was an admirable effort. The cover above is the latest one, and is in keeping with a formulaic style for the trilogy of books. The two covers below are earlier ones - you can no longer get them in print form. The one below on the right was banned by Amazon because it displayed a tiny swastika.