It is New Year’s Eve 1915 and the Hardcastle family are welcoming 1916 at their home in Kennington, London. But an hour into the New Year, Hardcastle is called to a murder in a jeweller’s shop in Vauxhall. In a first for the A Division senior detective, the killers apparently made their escape in a motor car.
As Hardcastle’s enquiry progresses, what he believed to be a fairly straightforward investigation turns into one with ramifications extending from Chelsea via Sussex and Surrey to France, close to the fighting on the Western Front. And as is so often the case in wartime, the army becomes involved and so, to Hardcastle’s dismay, does Scotland Yard’s Special Branch . . .
About the author
Graham Ison was in the regular army before joining the Metropolitan Police. During his career in Scotland Yard’s Special Branch, he was involved in several famous espionage cases and spent four years at 10 Downing Street as protection officer to the prime minister. He later guarded crowned heads and US presidents during their visits to Britain, and served as second-in-command of the Diplomatic Protection Group. He is an honorary agent of the US Army Criminal Investigation Command.