A Beacon in the Night
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Like a female James Bond but with better one-liners, an unflappable British spy works alongside her aristocratic partner to root out homegrown Nazi collaborators in this riveting, action-packed WWII caper for fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Susan Elia Macneal, and Charles Todd. Now available in paperback!
London, 1941. Britain has endured the relentless bombing campaign of the Blitz and emerged scarred but unbroken. Caitrin, too, strives to weather each challenge that comes her way, though her ever-ready banter belies deep heartbreak and loss. But now the war has entered another phase. Instead of indiscriminate bombing, the Luftwaffe is pinpointing historic targets with the help of homing beacons placed by the enemy. It’s as if Germany plans to erase Britain’s very essence and culture, destroying morale as it does so.
Caitrin is no fan of the landed gentry, even if her fellow operative and friend, Lord Hector Neville-Percy, is one of them. Yet soon it is not just historic targets under attack, but hospitals and nursing homes too. Tasked with rooting out the saboteurs placing the beacons, she finds that all roads lead to Daniel “Teddy” Baer, a charismatic Whitechapel crook who will crush anyone who interferes with his dreams—Caitrin included.
As a member of the female-driven 512 counterespionage unit, Caitrin understands how often women are underestimated and overlooked—and how to use it to her advantage. Yet she’s not the only one who knows how to hide in plain sight, how to outwit and manipulate. And sometimes, as with a beacon hidden deep within a building, danger only becomes apparent when it flares to life, right before the moment of impact . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The suspenseful second installment in Lewis's series featuring spy Caitrin Colline (after A Jewel in the Crown) opens on New Year's Eve 1940 during the London Blitz. Caitrin, a former Welsh policewoman, meets her friend Florence Simmonds at the Blind Stag pub, managed by Caitrin's flirtatious but thuggish friend Teddy Baer. Unbeknownst to her friends, Caitrin is an operative for 512, an all-female counterespionage group led by war widow Bethany Goodman. As Churchill threatens to shut 512 down due to budgetary constraints, German bombers target British cathedrals, hospitals, and aristocratic houses with uncanny accuracy. Caitrin has learned that Florence and Teddy may be involved in the placement of homing devices that lead the Nazi bombers to their targets, and she infiltrates Teddy's inner circle to thwart the scheme. While some of Caitrin's motives are strained—notably, her fierce determination to recover her mother's ring from petty thieves rather than fight the Nazis who killed her fiancé—the action moves at a swift pace, the dialogue is sharp, and the well-placed historical details evoke the harrowing realities of English life during WWII. With a fierce heroine and nail-biting plot, this will delight fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Susan Elia MacNeal.
