Overview
In 1943, The United Kingdom is alive with men and women making ready for the greatest invasion in history: preparing to assault Hitler's Fortress Europe. The skies are full of training aircraft, their engines merging with the throb of the RAF and USAAF bombers heading on round-the-clock missions against Germany.
With fresh bloodshed on the horizon, the coming Christmas preparations seem even more poignant. But with just ten days to go, the seasonal mood is shattered in the quiet market town of Wantage in Berkshire by the discovery of two badly battered bodies. It seems that the victims were tortured before being beaten to death. Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Livermore and DS Suzie Mountford, Tommy's right-hand woman and secret lover, are assigned to the case.
The bodies are identified as Lieutenant Colonel Tim Weaving, an officer commanding a detachment from the Glider Pilot Regiment stationed at a nearby airfield; and Emily Burrage, wife of the town's hero, an officer with the Desert Rats who was awarded the Victoria Cross at Tobruk.
As they begin to investigate the double murder, Tommy and Suzie are joined by Curry Shepherd, a representative of the Intelligence Services. It is possible that an enemy agent has interrogated Tim Weaving and as he was in possession of information concerning the plans for Overlord—-the Allied plan for the invasion of occupied Europe—-things become urgent. Suzie finds herself seconded to War Office Intelligence Liaison and so enters the secret world.
This is a surprising, dark, and imaginative novel from one of Britain's best thriller writers.
Synopsis
In 1943, The United Kingdom is alive with men and women making ready for the greatest invasion in history: preparing to assault Hitler's Fortress Europe. The skies are full of training aircraft, their engines merging with the throb of the RAF and USAAF bombers heading on round-the-clock missions against Germany.
With fresh bloodshed on the horizon, the coming Christmas preparations seem even more poignant. But with just ten days to go, the seasonal mood is shattered in the quiet market town of Wantage in Berkshire by the discovery of two badly battered bodies. It seems that the victims were tortured before being beaten to death. Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Livermore and DS Suzie Mountford, Tommy's right-hand woman and secret lover, are assigned to the case.
The bodies are identified as Lieutenant Colonel Tim Weaving, an officer commanding a detachment from the Glider Pilot Regiment stationed at a nearby airfield; and Emily Burrage, wife of the town's hero, an officer with the Desert Rats who was awarded the Victoria Cross at Tobruk.
As they begin to investigate the double murder, Tommy and Suzie are joined by Curry Shepherd, a representative of the Intelligence Services. It is possible that an enemy agent has interrogated Tim Weaving and as he was in possession of information concerning the plans for Overlord—-the Allied plan for the invasion of occupied Europe—-things become urgent. Suzie finds herself seconded to War Office Intelligence Liaison and so enters the secret world.
This is a surprising, dark, and imaginative novel from one of Britain's best thriller writers.
Publishers Weekly
Prolific British author Gardner, in the introduction to his predictable fourth Suzie Mountford mystery (after 2004's Angels Dining at the Ritz), makes no apology for hanging his tale on a premise at least four other novelists have used before-the Nazis' efforts to learn the British secret plans for invading Normandy. Mountford, a "Woman Detective Sergeant," becomes involved in espionage when her investigation into the torture-murder of a colonel reveals that the victim was part of the inner circle of military strategists. She's drafted into the ranks of British intelligence, which complicates her tense relationship with her lover and superior, Supt. Tommy Livermore. None of the characters is especially memorable, while Mountford's usual competence and self-sufficiency is again undercut by her role toward the end as a damsel in distress. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.