It's 1940, and Bill Trave is a Detective Constable in his early thirties working in West London. Almost single-handedly Winston Churchill maintains the country's morale, with the German enemy convinced that his removal would win them the War. Meanwhile, Albert Morrison, a rich widower forced into early retirement, is stabbed to death in his Chelsea flat. At Morrison's funeral, his daughter Ava learns that her father worked for MI6 before the War. Trave suspects that there is a Nazi double agent within MI6, with a plan to assassinate Churchill. He is in a race against time to save the Prime Minister, for if he fails, Britain's entire war effort could be at stake... When an eminent art historian is found dead in his study, all the evidence points to his estranged son, Stephen. It is revealed that Stephen's father was involved at the end of World War II in a deadly hunt for a priceless relic in northern France, and the case begins to unravel. As Stephen's trial unfolds at the Old Bailey, Inspector Trave of the Oxford police decide he must go to France and find out what really happened in 1944. But Trave has very little time—the race is on to save Stephen from the gallows. David Swain is two years into his life sentence for murdering the lover of his ex-girlfriend, Katya Osman. In the dead of night, he escapes from prison. Hours later, Katya is found murdered in her uncle's home, Blackwater Hall. But Trave's investigation has taken an unexpected turn. Katya's uncle is a rich diamond dealer with a grudge against Trave who has gone to great lengths to create a new identity. Now convinced that they have arrested the wrong man, and with personal scores to settle, Trave must risk everything he holds dear to bring his unlikely target to justice.
