Tug of War

1926. The war-ravaged vineyards of France. In this masterpiece of suspense from CWA Historical Dagger Award-winner Barbara Cleverly, a nameless soldier plunges Scotland Yard inspector Joe Sandilands into a shifting world of deception, rage, and murder....

A well-earned vacation takes a sharp detour when Sandilands is called to France, where a shell-shocked patient--a tragic casualty of war--is in the throes of a violent nightmare. Trying to determine the mystery man's identity proves a difficult, internationally delicate task: several families are claiming the unknown soldier as their own.

But it is at a famed château, where the wine flows and disturbing secrets abound, that Sandilands meets a woman who takes his investigation in a chillingly different direction. Strong-willed and alluring Aline Houdart's husband has been missing and presumed dead for nearly ten years. Her true motives are as elusive as the truth about a long-ago night...when a horrific crime was committed and lives changed forever. Now Sandilands, an ex-soldier himself, a man who has seen his share of bloodshed and sorrow, is waging his own battle for justice. It is a fight for his fallen comrades that will unmask a killer. Or bury the truth forever...

Author: Barbara Cleverly
Publisher: Delta
Published: 04/29/2008
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.53lbs
Size: 8.29h x 5.04w x 0.71d
ISBN: 9780385341837

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 08/24/2008 pg. 24

About the Author
Barbara Cleverly is the author of nine novels of historical suspense, including The Damascened Blade, winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award, The Last Kashmiri Rose, Ragtime in Simla, The Palace Tiger, The Bee's Kiss, Tug of War, An Old Magic and The Tomb of Zeus. She lives in Cambridge, England where she is now at work on the newest Joe Scandilands novel, Folly du Jour.