This is Nazi-occupied England, 1940. A time of difficult choices and divided loyalties among families, friends and lovers.
What would you have done?
Fought on with the resistance?
Or learned to live with the Gestapo presence?
In Sandwich, a quiet corner of Kent, where the first Nazi to arrive is assassinated, the dilemma is real for people like the Hearne family.
Belita Hearne, who comes from Romany stock, but is now settled and married to the police inspector, faces the harshest choice: whether to save her infant son from the Nazis' gypsy round-up, by giving the Gestapo commando what he wants from her.
Her husband sees no choice but to co-operate with the Gestapo on the assassination inquiry. A decision she deeply despises. Because he knows who the assassin is. And if he reveals the assassin's identity, he will betray his wife to the Gestapo, leaving him torn between what he sees as his duty and his love for Belita.
Everyone in occupied England faces a choice. The one thing nobody can do is avoid taking sides.
The first in a three-part series of literary thrillers, Blood and Tears, captures the tragedy, romance and drama of the Second World War. Part historical fiction, part detective mystery and part love story, this will keep you completely gripped from the start.
