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His past was a lie - his present a mystery. There is a drowned village in the South of France called St Juste, a village where secrets were buried in the Second World War; a village swiftly coming back into the light of day as a summer drought empties the reservoir that hides it. Tom Chapel comes to St Juste to discover why a local man, Marcel Coultard, has left his 28 million dollar fortune to his daughter Romilly, and why shortly after his bequest, Romilly was abducted and attacked, and left in a life-threatening coma. The local police are not forthcoming: there is a code of silence about Romilly and another dead girl, a silence which suggests a deeper and abiding mystery that Tom must uncover. His search takes him back to when this part of France was ruled by the Vichy government, at odds with the Resistance fighters who tried to smuggle Jews away to safety: Tom included. Yet not all the women made it: some were betrayed: but by who? Who amongst the French people he meets could be harbouring a cold-blooded killer who forty years later is prepared to kill and kill again to preserve his secret? Tom Chapel had a cold upbringing, with a father who thought he needed to toughen up and a mother who was also quick to punish. Tom's sister Margot could do no wrong, but she develops some odd tastes. Tom is a weak man and his daughter Romilly (byblow of a Cambridge affair) comes to despise him. Then from a village in France, now drowned by a reservoir, local man Tom Coultard leaves Romilly a fortune. Shortly after this strange bequest Romilly is abducted, attacked and left in a coma. Tom sets out to discover what happened and his search takes him back to the war when this district was ruled by the Vichy government. The author of Monstrum has written a first-class thriller which holds the reader riveted. It should sell a bomb next spring.

Walking the Shadows