Part of Inspector Lynley, book 12
First published 2004
Guy Brouard lies dead on an isolated Guernsey beach. The wealthy benefactor and Holocaust survivor was planning a museum to honor wartime resistance fighters when someone killed him. Deborah and Simon St. James arrive to find the island thick with suspects. Brouard's wives resent him. His business partners harbor grudges. His current mistress keeps secrets. The troubled teenagers he mentored carry hidden anger. As the will reading approaches, the St. James team discovers that Guernsey's wartime occupation still casts long shadows. Someone among the mourners committed murder, possibly seeking revenge for crimes that stretch back to the Nazi years. The investigators must navigate decades of buried trauma and present day deceptions to identify a killer who may have finally settled an old score.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Guernsey, Guernsey Beach
Period: World War II, Nazi Occupation
800 pages · Paperback · Bantam Books
Content warnings: violence