I had not read any of this authors previous books and was pleasantly surprised by this. It is well written with a very believable set of characters. It is full of good dialogue and fairly rattles along. The story revolves around Professor Tom Wilde and his partner Lydia who are on holiday in France at the outbreak of the Second World War when a stranger tells them that a former student of Wilde is in an internment camp in France. They set about getting this person (Marcus) released and bring him back to England. Marcus turns out to be the central bad guy in the story and one of the best aspects of the book is the fact that the back story of Marcus is explained is such great detail. The story starts slowly but builds to an exciting finale with plenty of twists and turns. It will certainly hold your attention as thrown into the mix of the plot is the American ambassador to the UK; the sinking of the liner SS Athenia and Russian agents. Will look forward to picking up this authors previous 2 books in the series. Highly recommended!