Description
Book Synopsis1940. A woman lands on the Scottish coast from a German flying boat and goes to ground, hunted by British Intelligence.
Suspended from the Irish police for reasons he won''t explain, Detective Inspector Stefan Gillespie is working on his father''s farm in Wicklow. One day he vanishes, leaving no sign of where he is heading - or why. Even in rural Ireland, rumours of assassination and Nazi spies fill the air, leaving Stefan''s father to wonder whether he is in terrible danger.
Meanwhile in London, Stefan is undercover, working in a pub: The Bedford Arms in Camden. Run by an alcoholic, bankrupt landlord, it''s a wartime refuge for the Irish in London. And while the city shakes under the Blitz, Stefan falls into a romance with Vera Kennedy, an Irishwoman who has her own dark secrets to hide.
But behind closed doors, a different war is being fought, and Stefan has more work than pulling pints on his hands. The Bedford Arms hides some unexpected dangers. The drunken lan
Trade ReviewHaving already brought 1930s Dublin and Danzig vividly to life in his outstanding debut
The City of Shadows, Russell does the same for New York in a sequel that's even better. The unique complexity of Ireland's divided loyalties and enmities on the eve of the Second World War is explored with unusual clarity and intelligence, and there are plenty of thrills and spills too
Complex but compelling ... utterly vivid and convincing ... Michael Russell's style is a pleasure: easy, fluent, clear, always calm and never over-heated. The result is an exciting comfort read, which sounds like a paradox but isn't
Part thriller and part historical novel, this is a blinder of a read!
A great insight into a turbulent time in Dublin and Ireland, in a challenging-to-your-heartbeat kind of way
