Book description
He could see in searchlights probing the night sky, illuminating the
barrage balloons which floated like giant moths above the darkened city
to hinder the approach the V-2s which descended without warning like
thunderclaps and which Londoners had come to fear more than any other
weapon used against them. During a blackout on the streets of London on
a freezing evening in late 1944, a young Polish land girl, Rosa Nowak,
is suddenly and brutally killed. For the police, their resources already
stretched by the new war regulations and the thriving black market, this
is a shocking and seemingly random crime. No one can find any reason why
someone would want to murder an innocent refugee. For the former police
inspector John Madden, the crime hits close to home. Rosa was working on
his farm and he feels personally responsible for not protecting her. His
old colleagues Angus Sinclair and Billy Styles are still at the Yard but
struggle to make sense of their few clues. Their only lead points
towards Europe - but as the war rages across the continent, will they
find the killer before he strikes again?
Rennie Airth was born in South Africa and has worked as a foreign
correspondent for Reuters. The first novel in his John Madden trilogy,
River of Darkness, was published in 1999 to huge critical
acclaim, was shortlisted for four crime fiction awards and won the
Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France. The sensational sequel
was The Blood-Dimmed Tide, and The Dead of Winter forms
the final part of the trilogy.
