Half a Crown by Jo Walton

Half a Crown by Jo Walton conclusion to the alternate history/mystery trilogy. It's the 1960s but, different than it is recorded in history books. Russia has been defeated destroyed by nuclear weapons, Britain is a police state. A peace conference will be held in England and the Duke of Windsor has invited himself much to the chagrin of the authorities. Carmichael now in charge of the Watch[British KGB or Gestapo] must maintain his position so that he can covertly undermine the regime. As with the other two books in the trilogy there's a split narrative. The other one follows his adoptive niece whose to be presented to the Queen. Two things bother me.

The first of these is something that goes for the other books as well. The female leads tend to be naive or well, stupid. They are quick on the uptake but there's a lot of rather obvious exposition that is crammed down our throats when it's really not necessary.

The second thing is the conclusion of the book and trilogy. I won't give it away but if you think about it it's pretty obvious. I don't believe for a second that it would be as easy as the book makes it out to be. Come to think of it a 4th volume would be fascinating.

The conclusion did bring down the series in my eyes a little bit however I'd recommend it.