1926. The war-ravaged vineyards of France. In this masterpiece of suspense from CWA Historical Dagger Award–winner Barbara Cleverly, a nameless soldier plunges Scotland Yard inspector Joe Sandilands into a shifting world of deception, rage, and murder.…
A well-earned vacation takes a sharp detour when Sandilands is called to France, where a shell-shocked patient—a tragic casualty of war—is in the throes of a violent nightmare. Trying to determine the mystery man’s identity proves a difficult, internationally delicate task: several families are claiming the unknown soldier as their own.
But it is at a famed château, where the wine flows and disturbing secrets abound, that Sandilands meets a woman who takes his investigation in a chillingly different direction. Strong-willed and alluring Aline Houdart’s husband has been missing and presumed dead for nearly ten years. Her true motives are as elusive as the truth about a long-ago night…when a horrific crime was committed and lives changed forever. Now Sandilands, an ex-soldier himself, a man who has seen his share of bloodshed and sorrow, is waging his own battle for justice. It is a fight for his fallen comrades that will unmask a killer. Or bury the truth forever…