Dominion: A Compulsive, Alternate-History Spy Thriller from the Bestselling Author of Dissolution
Oct 2012 · Pan Macmillan
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66 reviews
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About this ebook
'Tremendous' – The Guardian
'I just fell in love with it' – Stephen King
Set in a reimagined 1950s Britain, Dominion is a gripping, haunting spy thriller – and a poignant love story. From the master of the historical novel and author of the Shardlake series, C.J. Sansom.
1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule: the press, radio and television are controlled; the streets patrolled by violent auxiliary police and British Jews face ever greater constraints. There are terrible rumours too about what is happening in the basement of the German Embassy at Senate House.
Defiance, though, is growing. In Britain, Winston Churchill's Resistance organization is increasingly a thorn in the government's side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle for ever.
Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, is given the mission to rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London's Great Smog – as David's wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined. And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men . . .
'Absorbing, mordant and written with a passionate persuasiveness' – Independent on Sunday
'Exciting, sophisticated and moving' – The Sunday Times
'I just fell in love with it' – Stephen King
Set in a reimagined 1950s Britain, Dominion is a gripping, haunting spy thriller – and a poignant love story. From the master of the historical novel and author of the Shardlake series, C.J. Sansom.
1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule: the press, radio and television are controlled; the streets patrolled by violent auxiliary police and British Jews face ever greater constraints. There are terrible rumours too about what is happening in the basement of the German Embassy at Senate House.
Defiance, though, is growing. In Britain, Winston Churchill's Resistance organization is increasingly a thorn in the government's side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle for ever.
Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, is given the mission to rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London's Great Smog – as David's wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined. And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men . . .
'Absorbing, mordant and written with a passionate persuasiveness' – Independent on Sunday
'Exciting, sophisticated and moving' – The Sunday Times
'Tremendous' – The Guardian
'I just fell in love with it' – Stephen King
Set in a reimagined 1950s Britain, Dominion is a gripping, haunting spy thriller – and a poignant love story. From the master of the historical novel and author of the Shardlake series, C.J. Sansom.
1952. Twelve years hav...
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Ratings and reviews
66 reviews
A Google user
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November 16, 2012
I'm being hard on this book but it was a real slog to get through 800 pages without a compelling plot to hold the story together. Nothing in the book from the characters to the plot to the setting feels like it has any weight to it. You simply don't care what happens next.
Mike Ramseyer
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January 5, 2026
Tough subject matter influenced my low mark however this book overall falls far short of the skills shown by CJ Sanson in his Shardlake series. Cannot say it was a good read and struggled to finish it. Apologies.
Matt Langin
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November 18, 2025
I really, really enjoyed this book. It actually gave me very vivid nightmares at points, such was the tension. The only thing I would say, is that sometimes the way the alternative historical timeline is presented, feels a little shoehorned into the character's dialogue. There were a few moments that made me roll my eyes a bit, when a character suddenly said "of course, the Germans and British made x agreement..." as a way of saying to the reader "remember, things are different in this story to real life" and the epilogue at the end used a similar way of tying things together. That being said, I thought it was great and I was genuinely rooting for particular characters, and I loathed some of the villains. I think this book made me 'feel' more than others that I have read recently.
About the author
C. J. Sansom was educated at Birmingham University, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer. Sansom is the bestselling author of the acclaimed Shardlake series, the Spanish Civil War thriller Winter in Madrid and the number one bestseller Dominion. In 2023, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. He lived in Sussex until his death in 2024.
C. J. Sansom was educated at Birmingham University, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer. Sansom is the bestselling author of the acclaimed Shardlake series, the Spa...
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