From Australia's 'national literary institution' Sydney Morning Herald
The latest mystery featuring homicide detective and family man Scobie Malone The time has come for Scobie Malone to leave the Homicide and Serial Offenders Unit of the Sydney police, and his last investigation could be the most bizarre case ever to cross his desk. Called in when a housemaid is found dead in a dotcom millionaire's penthouse, Scobie suspects he's dealing with a kidnap that's gone wrong. In fact, it couldn't have gone more wrong. The kidnappers thought they had grabbed the millionaire's girlfriend -- how were they supposed to know he liked slipping into her designer dresses when she wasn't around? The plot thickens further when it is revealed that the dotcom bubble has burst, leaving the erstwhile millionaire in debt to the Yakuza and Scobie on the trail of some old adversaries. Throw in the ex-wife, a mistress or two, and the mother of all outlaws, and you have a case that would confound the greatest detective and entertain the most discerning of readers.
Winston Churchill embarks on a battle of wills with Adolf Hitler in the run-up to Dunkirk. The compelling new historical novel from the acclaimed author of Winston's War. 10 May 1940. In the early hours Hitler launches his attack on France, Holland and Belgium. The Phoney War is at an end. In four weeks, Hitler will win the most devastating series of victories in the history of modern warfare that will make him master of Europe. A few hours after Hitler's attack begins, Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of a beleaguered, confused and dispirited Britain. He is surrounded by intrigue and mistrusted by his colleagues, who within days will plot to throw him out of office. He is also about to suffer the most humiliating military setback at Dunkirk that brings Britain within hours of defeat and surrender. This is the story of those four crucial weeks in which Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler were pitted against each other, man to man, mind to mind, in a confrontation that both came to regard as a personal battle of wills. Their clash began immediately, on 10 May, when Churchill sent a letter to the old German Kaiser, Wilhelm II. It continued as first Holland and then Belgium surrendered, and Churchill used his opponents within his own War Cabinet to confuse and outwit Hitler. And while the Wehrmacht's panzers drove remorselessly through France and towards Dunkirk, Churchill used his most secret weapon, a young and resourceful woman called Emma, to sow such confusion within the Nazi ranks that would give the British forces pinned down on the beaches of Dunkirk three vital days to sail away and to survive. Britain would fight on. By the end of those four weeks, Hitler was at the gates of Paris and master of all he surveyed. But Churchill had already broken him on the most crucial battlefield of all, the battlefield of the mind.
Michael Dobbs’ books have a knack of being uncannily timely. His award-winning House of Cards trilogy foreshadowed both the downfall of Margaret Thatcher and the increasing turmoil within the Royal Family, while his Goodfellowe MP novels showed how a small band of highly motivated men could bring a great city to its knees. His most recent bestselling novel, Winston's War, was published just as the nation was voting for Winston Churchill as the Greatest Briton. He has been an academic, a broadcaster, a senior corporate executive and an adviser to two Prime Ministers.
Mark Adkin
The Sharpe Companion: The Early Years
Agatha Christie