Elizabeth Wilson

London, 1956. A young woman has been found dead in a hotel in King's Cross. It looks like an accident, and Scotland Yard isn't interested in accidents. But Fleet Street journalist Gerry Blackstone reckons there's more to it than meets the eye.

Meanwhile, Oxford is filling with Hungarian émigrés fleeing the failed revolution. Special Branch, concerned there could be Soviet spies among the genuine refugees, send in DCI Jack McGovern to keep an eye on proceedings.

As McGovern plays spycatcher in Oxford and Blackstone hunts for clues in the seedy corners of London, a complex web of rogues, schemers and potential suspects starts to emerge: the well-to-do madam, the Classics professor, the East London crime boss, the government minister... does it all lead back to the dead girl in King's Cross? Or is there something even more sinister going on?

London, 1947. It’s freezing winter in the shabby, bomb-damaged city. Young socialite Dinah Wentworth, a bright, innocent newcomer to the Fitzrovia scene, becomes embroiled in a dark scandal when she discovers the corpse of surrealist artist Titus Mavor. Not wanting to explain her reasons for being at Mavor's flat that evening, she decides against reporting her grim discovery to the police.

But her silence has terrible consequences. Dinah's husband's friend, Colin Harris, is linked to the crime and arrested on suspicion of murder. Dinah realises someone is trying to frame him and knows she must uncover the real villain before Harris is hanged.