Operation Lost Hours

From international bestselling author Michael Ridpath comes a thrilling novella about a manuscript stolen in 1930s Berlin - part of his must-read Foreign Correspondent series. 🔍👀📖

Berlin, 1930

Settled uneasily in the German capital, war historian Archie Laverick and aspiring foreign correspondent Esme Carmichael are tracked down at their hotel by an old friend, the book dealer Moses Garfinkel. Shaken and desperate, Moses brings alarming news: his uncle has been arrested for the theft of a priceless Book of Hours from the British rector in Berlin – a crime Moses insists his family could never have committed. Before Archie and Esme can ask more, Moses himself is seized by the authorities outside the hotel.

Convinced the arrests are a smokescreen, Archie and Esme start asking questions, uncovering a trail of red herrings and wrongful accusations. What begins as a search for a missing book soon leads them somewhere far more dangerous.

Can they uncover the truth before the wrong people pay the price?

A gripping post-WW1 novella for fans of Philip Kerr’s Berlin Trilogy, Robert Harris’s Fatherland, and Alan Furst's spy novels.

Praise for Michael Ridpath:

'Ridpath has that read-on factor that sets bestsellers apart” The Guardian

'It is the author's insight that gives his novel so much life. And he can write... Yes, he has a winner here' The New York Times

'For sheer entertainment, there's nothing in the mystery genre to beat a well-constructed thriller… …the new book of Michael Ridpath provides a master-class in how it's done{::}. I read it in one gulp' The Observer

'As slick and compulsive a piece of storytelling as can be found in the best of blockbuster fiction' Sunday Express