A Traitor's Loyalty: A Novel (38 page)

I have deliberately avoided introducing any historical British politicians into the novel. The only British minister named is the foreign secretary, the Earl of Home, and historically by 1971 there no longer
was
an Earl of Home. The fourteenth Earl, foreign secretary from 1960 to 1963 in the Macmillan Government, disclaimed his peerages in 1963 after the Conservative Party selected him to replace Harold Macmillan as party leader, so that he could be elected to the House of Commons for Kinross as Sir Alec Douglas-Home and assume the office of Prime Minister. He lost the General Election of 1964 and was replaced as Leader of the Opposition a year later by Edward Heath, in whose later Government he served with distinction once more as foreign secretary. He re-entered the House of Lords in 1974 as Baron Home of the Hirsel of Coldstream and died in 1995.

Integral to my understanding of Nazi Germany were Louis L. Snyder’s
Encyclopedia of the Third Reich
and
An Illustrated History of the Gestapo
by Rupert Butler. Inevitably, I have taken creative liberties with the material in both volumes, as I also have with the material by Spotts and Speer on Hitler’s grandiose plans for the reconstruction of Germany. Such liberties are even more necessary with alternate history than they are with conventional historical fiction. Responsibility for any and all inaccuracies in the novel lies, of course, with me.

THE FIRST idea of what would eventually turn into this book came to me when I was fifteen. Between that point and this, many people have read portions of the manuscript or simply listened to me talk about parts of it (either with or without the context they needed for me to make any sense). They gave me thoughtful criticism or simply encouraging enthusiasm, and they have my gratitude: Andy Giglio, Kelly Gunning, Nikki Berger, Lee Berger and Diane Ashoff.

My thanks also to Andy Zack, my agent, who not only took me on but also whose feedback on the manuscript’s first draft led to a lot of the ideas that are now among my favorite elements in the story.

And most importantly, my thanks to my wife, Lisa, for thoughtful criticism, encouraging enthusiasm, and so many other things, but in particular for saying, “You know, I hear a lot of talk about how you’re going to write books someday, but I don’t ever see any
writing.”

IAN C. RACEY grew up in Yorkshire, New England and Florida. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and children. He can be found online at
www.iancracey.com
.