'This richly imagined thriller is set in an alternate past . . . Tightly plotted, tense and set in a chillingly plausible world' Sunday Mirror
'A gripping story, with heart' Best thrillers of 2019, Daily Telegraph
It's 1952 and Soviet troops control British streets after winning the Second World War.
After the disastrous failure of D-Day, Britain is occupied by Nazi Germany, and only rescued by Russian soldiers arriving from the east and Americans from the west. The two superpowers divide the nation between them, a wall running through London like a scar.
On the Soviet side of the wall, Jane Cawson calls into her husband's medical practice, hoping to surprise him. But instead she detects the perfume worn by his former wife, Lorelei, star of propaganda films for the new Marxist regime.
Jane rushes to confront them, but soon finds herself caught up in the glamorous actress's death.
Her husband Nick is arrested for murder. Desperate to clear his name, Jane must risk the attention of the brutal secret police as she follows a trail of corruption right to the highest levels of the state.
And she might find she never really knew her husband at all.
___________
'A gripping and well-imagined yarn' Sun
'A gripping murder mystery set in an alternative 1950s Britain . . . One not to miss' William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier
'A superb and intelligent piece of alternate history. By turns gripping, terrifying and trenchant, it is a remarkably assured debut' Stav Sherez, author of The Intrusions
'A twisting murder mystery combined with a chillingly plausible alternative history of a divided Cold War London. Brilliant' Mason Cross, bestselling author of The Samaritan
'A brilliantly researched, shockingly plausible thriller' Claire McGowan, author of The Fall
- ISBN10 0718187091
- ISBN13 9780718187095
- Publish Date 18 April 2019
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 7 April 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
- Imprint Michael Joseph Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 400
- Language English