Set in Nazi-occupied France, this World War II novel of intrigue by the author of the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries “call[s] to mind John le Carré” (Publishers Weekly).
Best known for his gritty Dalziel and Pascoe novels, which were adapted into a hit BBC series, Reginald Hill proves to be “the finest male English contemporary crime writer” of stand-alone novels—now available as ebooks (Val McDermid).
Paris, 1945. Günter Mai is a compassionate lieutenant with German intelligence, tasked with combing the city for collaborators. He understands the motives for their betrayal of country: greed, desperation, and fear. Janine Simonian is the wife of a Jewish member of the Resistance, virulently anti-Nazi and, at first, a most unlikely recruit for supplying information to the Abwehr. Until the Gestapo’s reign of terror escalates and Janine’s children are carted off to a pogrom. With Auschwitz only a heartbeat away, Janine strikes a bargain with Mai—one that will have irreversible consequences for the husband she betrays, for Mai, and for Janine herself.
Within the context of a gripping historical thriller, Reginald Hill delivers “a moving, richly textured account of an inhuman military occupation and the all-too-human loyalties it spawns” (Kirkus Reviews).
