My first book written by Dirk Husemann. I love the cover. It has an atmosphere and the mix of dark colors and sepia matches with the title. Inside the novel history mixes with war, emotion, and fiction. I can´t say what is fiction and what not, but the brutality of some of the scenes gives you a feeling of how things must have been during World War II. And it is a bit shocking to know that the Duke of Windsor could have been one of the reasons, why the war took that turn back then.
Die Windsor Akte
by Dirk Husemann Publisher Lübbe on August 25, 2023
Genre Historical Novel
Pages 375
Format Paperback
Source Lübbe, Lesejury
✶✶✶½
A young Scot. A king who abdicates for love's sake. And the last secrets of the Windsor’s.A mysterious visitor turns the life of student Ajax Doggerton upside down. An agent of the British secret service asks him to work as a servant for the abdicated King Edward. He enjoys life in Paris and on the Côte d'Azur with his middle-class wife, Wallis. But there is a shadow over the glamor because Edward is suspected of wanting to ally himself with Adolf Hitler. With the help of Ajax, the British are trying to find out whether the ex-king wants to betray England to the Nazis. When Ajax makes a fatal mistake in Paris, a tug-of-war begins over Edward that threatens to become a crucial test for the whole of Europe...
Story
Ajax and Lydie work in Paris as servants for the former King of England. A dangerous job because they both think Edward is about to exchange secret information with Hitler and that is exactly what the British government wants to avoid. Edward's life is in danger and Ajax needs to secure him.
Style
On the one hand, an entertaining novel. On the other hand, the plot loses some of its tension after a few chapters and the main character Ajax turns pale. The story itself revolves almost entirely around Edward and Wallis, presenting them to the reader as cold, selfish, and extremely calculating. I cannot judge whether the ducal couple had the same character in real life. The author has only listed the true historical facts at the end of the novel. Which I personally really liked.
The style of writing makes the novel easy to read. Towards the end, things get a little unbelievable. A princess can suddenly master something she has never done before. However, it brings some movement back into the plot that has become bland. And what's happening in the port of Lisbon somehow comes out of the blue. Otherwise, a solid novel.
Characters
Lydie is pure madness! What a woman. She doesn't let the princess take the butter off her bread and also shows her what she thinks of her in other ways. Lydie helps Princess Katharina out of many a sticky situation and is completely unimpressed by her behavior. What tears did I have when Lydie rescued the two women from a more than precarious situation and then, with an impassive expression, sat a bit disheveled and no longer presentable in the new means of transport. Splendid.
Ajax, on the other hand, loses color. A great character with wit and esprit at the beginning, but he gradually loses depth and gets really boring. And how it annoyed me that he and Lydie always miss each other by a hair's breadth. That got boring quickly.
Conclusion
All in all, a good novel that clearly could have done with less filler in some places. Towards the end, it became illogical and unbelievable for me. But I loved the happy ending. My guess has come true. And if you are curious about my hints, just read it yourself.
Happy reading
*This book was kindly provided to me by Lübbe/ Lesejury in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore, the cover of the German edition is shown first in this review. The book was, at the time this review was published, only available in the German language.
Deutsche Rezension
Stil
Einerseits ein unterhaltsamer Roman. Andererseits verliert die Handlung nach einigen Kapiteln einiges an Spannung und die Hauptfigur Ajax wird blass. Die Geschichte selbst dreht sich fast ausschließlich um Edward und Wallis und präsentiert diese dem Leser als kalt, egoistisch und äußerst berechnend. Ob das Herzogspaar im wahren Leben charakterlich ebenso ausgeprägt war, kann ich nicht beurteilen. Der Autor hat am Ende des Romans nur die wahren geschichtlichen Fakten aufgelistet. Was mir persönlich sehr gefallen hat.
Vom Schreibstil her ist der Roman einfach zu lesen. Zwar wird gegen Ende einiges etwas unglaubwürdig. Da kann eine Prinzessin plötzlich etwas beherrschen, was sie zuvor noch nie gemacht hat. Es bringt jedoch wieder etwas Bewegung in die fade gewordene Handlung. Und was da im Hafen von Lissabon passiert, kommt irgendwie auch aus dem Blauen heraus. Ansonsten ein solider Roman.
Charaktere
Lydie ist der pure Wahnsinn! Was für eine Frau. Die lässt sich von der Prinzessin nicht die Butter vom Brot nehmen und zeigt ihr auch sonst, was sie von ihr hält. Lydie hilft Prinzessin Katharina aus so manch brenzliger Situation und ist ganz unbeeindruckt von deren etepetete Verhalten. Was hab ich Tränen gelacht, als Lydie die beiden Frauen aus einer mehr als prekären Situation rettet und anschließend mit unbewegter Miene etwas derangiert und nicht mehr präsentabel im neuen Fortbewegungsmittel sitzt. Herrlich.
Ajax hingegen verliert an Farbe. Zu Beginn noch eine großartige Figur mit Witz und Esprit, verliert er nach und nach an Tiefe und wird richtig langweilig. Und wie es mich genervt hat, dass er und Lydie sich immer um Haaresbreite verpassen. Das wurde schnell langweilig.
Resultat
Alles in allem ein guter Roman, dem an einigen Stellen weniger Füllmaterial eindeutig gut gestanden hätte. Gegen Ende wurde es unlogisch und für mich unglaubwürdig. Aber das Happy End fand ich klasse. Meine Vermutung hat sich bewahrheitet. Und wer jetzt neugierig auf meine Andeutungen ist, einfach selbst lesen.
Dirk Husemann
Dirk Husemann digs up stories as a science journalist, archaeologist, and writer. He studied prehistory and early history, classical archeology, and ethnology in Münster. In addition to historical novels, he writes non-fiction and reports, for example about the pink stones of Stonehenge, fish in the Sahara or the starry sky under the pyramids of Mexico.
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