1. In London, it feels as if the peace is harder than the w ar. Years of devastating Luftwaffe bombing has obliterated stretches of the city and left others abandoned. Against this backdrop, psychologist-investigator Maisie Dobbs is drawn into the plight of a group of adolescent orphans, along with a gravely ill demobbed soldier who are squatting in a Belgravia mansion.

Maisie's attempt to help brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning her first husband, James Compton, who was killed while flying an experimental fighter aircraft. The deeply personal investigation leads her to a ghostly figure who is grappling with the weight of his own conscience and the outcome of the part he played during the w ar.

This final instalment in the internationally bestselling series will challenge so much of what Maisie understands about her life and forces her to question what she has always accepted to be true.