The Night Gate Synopsis
In a sleepy French village, the body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of a fallen tree. A week later a famous art critic is viciously murdered in a nearby house. The deaths occurred more than seventy years apart.
Asked by a colleague to inspect the site of the former, forensics expert Enzo Macleod quickly finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the latter. Two extraordinary narratives are set in train - one historical, unfolding in the treacherous wartime years of Occupied France; the other contemporary, set in the autumn of 2020 as France re-enters Covid lockdown.
And Enzo's investigations reveal an unexpected link between the murders - the Mona Lisa.
Tasked by the exiled General Charles de Gaulle to keep the world's most famous painting out of Nazi hands after the fall of France in 1940, 28-year-old Georgette Pignal finds herself swept along by the tide of history. Following in the wake of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa as it is moved from chateau to chateau by the Louvre, she finds herself just one step ahead of two German art experts sent to steal it for rival patrons - Hitler and Göring.
What none of them know is that the Louvre itself has taken exceptional measures to keep the painting safe, unwittingly setting in train a fatal sequence of events extending over seven decades.
Events that have led to both killings.
The Night Gate spans three generations, taking us from war-torn London, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Berlin and Vichy France, to the deadly enemy facing the world in 2020. In his latest novel, Peter May shows why he is one of the great contemporary writers of crime fiction.
About This Edition
| ISBN: | 9781784295080 |
| Publication date: | 5th August 2021 |
| Author: | Peter May |
| Publisher: | riverrun an imprint of Quercus Publishing |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 496 pages |
| Primary Genre | Crime and Mystery |
| Other Genres: |
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Peter May Press Reviews
One of the glories of the modern crime novel - Independent
The Night Gate transports the reader back and forth in time and across Europe . . . May uses his intimate knowledge of Scotland and rural France to his advantage, and his expert scene-setting really brings these locations to life. [A] very enjoyable read . . . fascinating historical insights - The Scotsman
Other editions of this book
ISBN: 9781784295080
Publication date: 05/08/2021
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781784295042
Publication date: 18/03/2021
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781784295059
Publication date: 18/03/2021
Format: Paperback
About Peter May
Peter May was born and raised in Scotland. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published novelist at twenty-six. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BCC, he quit journalism and during the high-octane fifteen years that followed, became one of Scotland's most successful television dramatists. He created three prime-time drama series, presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland as script editor and producer, and worked on more than 1,000 episodes of ratings-topping drama before deciding to leave television to return to his first love, writing novels.
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