The fifth novel in Anne Perry's breathtakingly tense and exciting spy thriller series, featuring young British photographer and secret agent Elena Standish, set in the 1930s when the world was a place of increasing fear and uncertainty...

As Hitler's influence spreads across Europe, the future of Britain is at stake...

It is late summer 1934 when retired MI6 agent John Repton's body is found near Wyndham Hall in the Cotswolds. Repton was killed while investigating the Wyndham family's ties to fascist sympathisers, and Elena Standish is assigned to discover if one of them resorted to murder . . .

Meanwhile, Elena's sister Margot is courting Lady Wyndham's brother and, unaware that Elena is a spy, Margot invites her to attend a house party at Wyndham Hall along with her colleague James Allenby, who masquerades as her suitor. As the atmosphere becomes increasingly tense, Elena and Allenby begin to expose the allegiances of the people in the house. But Elena is torn, for she knows that revealing the truth will protect the nation's security but could potentially destroy her sister's happiness . . .