A Stranger in Corfu
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Aug 4, 2026
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
A stylish, suspense-filled novel of espionage, shadowy morality, and unraveling secrets set on the sun-drenched Greek island of Vidos.
On the Greek island of Vidos the past lingers like salt in the air. The inhabitants—former members of MI6—are sent here to be forgotten, exiled: either too damaged or too compromised to be allowed to live freely.
For years, residents make the best of their fate—old enemies reconcile, long-lost friends swim together in the warm sea, and estranged lovers share a bed once more. But secrets bind tightly. And when one of their own washes up dead, alliances fracture and a tide of suspicion begins to rise.
A vivid reimagining of a real, hidden slice of the British Intelligence Service's history, A Stranger in Corfu is an exquisitely tense, masterfully spun novel of unravelling secrets and the futility of trying to outrun the past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Preston's intelligent but punchless latest (after Winchelsea), damaged British spies have their comfortable exile on the Greek island of Vidos disrupted by escalating violence. In 1995, MI6 operative Nina Woolf, 25 and traumatized by a failed mission in Bosnia, spends her days on Vidos swimming, hiking, and trying to adapt to the older crowd of ex-agents who either cracked up or were deemed treason risks. While Nina and her friend, Benedict Pierce, are on a walk overlooking the Ionian Sea, someone fires a shot at them. Over the next few months, three former spies turn up dead under mysterious circumstances, but the local police chief and British intelligence appear unconcerned. One common thread among the dead agents is that they were Soviet sympathizers with loose connections to real-life double agent Kim Philby and the Cambridge Five. Despite the promising setup, the novel sags from its midpoint on, its fleeting action weighed down by drawn-out flashbacks and ponderous monologues. Preston proves talented at sketching layered, tragic characters who've been compromised by the espionage game, but he struggles to construct a plot worthy of them. It's a misfire.
