Fatherland by Robert Harris

This book was recommended by a history professor of mine when I was in college. He said that while reading the book on the train in Berlin the swastika-emblazoned cover earned him several disapproving looks and, more troubling, the occasional thumbs-up. But while the novel is set in an alternative reality in which Hitler won World War Two, it's certainly not wishful thinking. Instead, the elements of a classic detective story (hardboiled detective with a broken home and running afoul of his superiors, plucky heroine with a few secrets) are set within a thoroughly researched imagining of what 1964 would be like if Hitler was celebrating his 75th birthday, President Joseph Kennedy was taking the first steps towards detente with Germany, and the carefully guarded secret of the reality of the Holocaust was threatening to break loose. In addition to the history porn, nerds will appreciate the prominence of paperwork and government bureaucracies in the plot's climax. Sold?