The blockbuster thriller from Graham Hurley, The Blood of Others is part of the SPOILS OF WAR Collection, a thrilling, beguiling blend of fact and fiction born of some of the most tragic, suspenseful, and action-packed events of World War II.
A catastrophe no headline dared admit.
Summer 1942. Abwehr intelligence officer Wilhelm Schultz is baiting a trap to lure thousands of Allied troops to their deaths.
George Hogan is a devout young Canadian journalist who has caught the eye of press baron Lord Beaverbrook. Now he faces an assignment that will test his faith to breaking point.
Jackie Wrenne, meanwhile, is working in Lord Louis Mountbatten's cloak-and-dagger Combined Operations headquarters and is privy to the boldest cross-Channel raid yet conceived.
Three lives interlinked by a name and a date that no Canadian will ever forget: Dieppe, 19 August 1942. At dawn, over six thousand men storm ashore on heavily defended French beaches. Barely hours later, less than half will make it back alive...
From highly acclaimed thriller author GRAHAM HURLEY, the blockbuster SPOILS OF WAR non-chronological collection features compelling recurring characters whose fragmented lives mirror the war that shattered the globe. For fans of Philip Kerr and Robert Harris.
Praise for the author: 'A penetrating, compelling, and skilfully vivid slice of historical fiction' LOVEREADING
'Historical fiction of a high order' THE TIMES
'Tense, absorbing and faultlessly plotted' SUNDAY TIMES
'Beautifully constructed... This is one of Hurley's finest' DAILY MAIL
'Capable and understated characterization' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Actress Enora Andressen is facing the perfect storm. Her favourite French director, Remy Despret, has lost his touch and is keeping dangerous company. Her agent, Rosa, has been seduced by a kiss-and-tell novel of doubtful provenance. While H, sicker by the day at home at Flixcombe Manor, is battling both Long Covid and something far darker. Devoting herself to H, Enora needs good news, and it arrives in the shape of a fascinating Remy idea based on Flixcombe's role during the Second World War. But the tonic soon turns sour when Enora is drawn into the project, with chilling consequences.
The world is struggling in the face of a relentless virus. When Hayden Prentice develops symptoms during a stay in his native Portsmouth, Enora Andressen and her son Malo must do their best to save his life. Because H, already in deep financial jeopardy, trusts no one. Except his kith and kin. But survival comes at a savage price. Not just the fortune that Enora must somehow raise to pay for his home nursing, but the murderous attentions of a stalker from H's past, determined to pay him one last visit and exact vengeance for a long-ago debt of blood . . .
Actress Enora Andressen is catching up with her ex-neighbour, Evelyn Warlock, who's recently retired to the comely East Devon seaside town of Budleigh Salterton. The peace, the friendship of strangers and the town's prestigious literary festival...Evelyn loves them all. Until the September evening when her French neighbour, Christianne Beaucarne, disappears. Enora has met this woman. The two of them have bonded. But what Enora discovers over the anguished months to come will put sleepy Budleigh Salterton on the front page of every newspaper in the land...
Actress Enora Andressen must find a killer, and there's no script to guide her...Carrie Tollman awakes in the middle of the night with an intruder gazing down at her. He tells her he's killed before and he'll kill again. One word about what's happened, and he'll be back. Carrie is one of two carers looking after Enora Andressen's favorite scriptwriter. But Pavel is now paralysed, as well as blind, and it falls to Enora to track down this terrifying presence at Carrie's bedside.
Enora's journey takes her deep into the netherworld of homelessness, neglect, and the unaddressed torments of people failing to cope with their demons. Nothing has ever prepared her for this...
Berlin, 1942.
For four years, the men in field grey have helped themselves to country after country across Western Europe. For Werner Nehmann, a journalist at the Promi - the Ministry of Propaganda - this dizzying series of victories has felt like a party without end. But now the Reich's attention has turned towards the East, and as winter sets in, the mood is turning. Werner's boss, Joseph Goebbels, can sense it. A small man with a powerful voice and coal-black eyes, Goebbels has a deep understanding the dark arts of manipulation. His words, his newsreels, have shaken Germany awake, propelling it towards its greater destiny and he won't let - he can't let - morale falter now. But the Minister of Propaganda is uneasy and in his discomfort has pulled Werner into his close confidence. And here, amid the power struggle between the Nazi Chieftains, Werner will make his mistake and begin his descent into the hell of Stalingrad...
PRAISE FOR GRAHAM HURLEY:
"Tense, absorbing and faultlessly plotted, this thoughtful thriller weaves it all together" SUNDAY TIMES
"Liked this. Went someway to plugging the ginormous hole that Philip Kerr sad passing has left in my life" DERMOT O'LEARY
"Hurley brings an almost noirlike sensibility to the surprising finale" BOOKLIST
"So well-written you can smell the sweat and taste the fear" PETER MAY
"Beautifully constructed, the result is compelling and richly entertaining" DAILY MAIL
From a critically acclaimed author comes the next instalment of the Wars Within series.
1941. Dieter Merz is the Reich's most celebrated fighter ace and his aerial prowess has brought him into close contact with the top echelons of Hitler's regime. But everything in the Nazi state still comes at a price. If Dieter wants help for an injured friend, he must inform on the modest, lifelong confidant always at Hitler's side: Rudolf Hess.
Meanwhile Scotsman and ex-marine Tam Moncrieff is working for M15, attempting to sound out Germany's intention of withdrawal. With most of Europe already fallen to Hitler's armies, Germany considers the war won. Berlin would be only too happy to call off the bombers and the U-boats in exchange for a formal peace treaty. But only if the English to turn their backs on Europe and attend to their precious Empire - leaving Germany the rest of the territorial spoils. With Churchill refusing to negotiate and intelligence agencies at each other's throats, Rudolf Hess becomes the unexpected catalyst that changes the fortunes of the war.
Praise for the author:
'Tense, absorbing and faultlessly plotted, this thoughtful thriller weaves it all together' SUNDAY TIMES Crime Club (Star Pick).
'Liked this. Went someway to plugging the ginormous hole that Philip Kerr sad passing has left in my life' DERMOT O'LEARY.
'Hurley brings an almost noirlike sensibility to the surprising finale' BOOKLIST.
'So well-written you can smell the sweat and taste the fear' PETER MAY.
'Beautifully constructed, the result is compelling and richly entertaining' DAILY MAIL.
Malo is in trouble again. Enora Andressen's wayward son has received a ransom demand for the return of his girlfriend, the daughter of a wealthy Colombian business tycoon. But how far can a mother trust her son? With the help of Hayden Prentice, Malo's natural father and himself a one-time drug baron, Enora embarks on a hunt for the truth behind the kidnapping. The journey takes her deep into the exploding world of county lines, the new business model that delivers Class A drugs into every corner of the kingdom. The sums of money at stake are dizzying and a human life counts for nothing. As Enora Andressen is about to discover . . .
Barely half of the Bomber Command's aircrews survive a full tour, but wireless operator Billy Angell has beaten the odds and completed his 30th - and final - mission. Now, Billy is due two-weeks leave, a posting to a training squadron and a six-month exemption from active duty. Except that MI5 need an airman to drop into Nazi-occupied France. MI5 are interested in Hélène Lafosse, a Frenchwoman keeping unusual company in her small family château in the depths of the Touraine. Hélène has begun an affair with a senior Abwehr intelligence officer, who, in return, has turned a blind eye to the succession of Jews, refugees, resistance fighters and downed Allied airmen to whom she offers shelter. MI5 believe they can exploit this relationship and plant a false lead about the anticipated allied invasion of northern France. It falls to Billy, playing a downed airman, to find Hélène, to win her confidence and to plant a lie that will only make sense to her German lover. But this time, Billy isn't flying at 20,000 feet and he won't be able to escape the incendiary consequences of his actions.
"Hurley's capable and understated characterization makes his lead's story plausible and engaging" PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.
"A Cracking thriller." THE TIMES
1937. Flying for the infamous Condor Legion over the battlefields of Spain's civil war, Merz has been able to unleash the fearsome potential of the Luftwaffe's newest weapon against his opponents. In Dieter's hands, the Messerschmitt Bf-109 is as graceful as a matador's killing strike: la estocada. Scotsman and ex-marine Tam Moncrieff is recruited by a nameless intelligence agency in London to go to Germany and sound out Hitler's resolve. Does he really intend to invade Czechoslovakia? Do his generals support him? Can the march to war be stopped? As duty collides with conscience, fate will bring both men together. In a world wedded to violence and ambition, desperate steps must be taken. To avoid war a killing strike is needed: la estocada. The question is, who is the matador, who is the bull?
"Tense, absorbing and faultlessly plotted." SUNDAY TIMES
Thirty-nine-year-old Enora Andresson is a successful actress and a woman in her prime. But tests have revealed an aggressive brain tumour that could kill her. Already struggling with the wreckage of her marriage and a strained relationship with her teenage son, Malo, she hasn't anticipated the appearance of investigative journalist Mitch Culligan. Mitch is writing a book about entrepreneur and one-time drug baron Hayden Prentice – a multi-millionaire who once crossed paths with Enora, and whom Mitch believes has helped fund the push to take the UK out of Europe. Mitch is determined to expose the murky swirl of politics, power and influence around Brexit – but in order to do so, he needs Enora's help. . .
Bird flu has arrived in the UK. Most of the population is dead or dying so fast that there's not enough time to bury them. Norman's survived - so far, and when his grandfather gets sick he knows that there can only be one outcome - but not before some secrets are revealed that will change Norman's life forever...
