Présentation de l'éditeur
As a student in France under the German occupation, Stephen Seagrave risked his life for the Resistance. But with the German defeat come dangers of another but no less frightening kind as he searches for the Gypsy whore he tried to save from the camps. His only weapon is a compromising photograph of a collaborator, now a powerful man in the new government, whom he must blackmail into helping him. But such a dangerous game will lead him into a deadly labyrinth of deceptions and betrayals where it is no longer possible to tell friend from foe.
Revue de presse
`A fine enough evocation of the awful, bloody muddle of postwar affairs' Observer
'An ambitious...historical thriller, which vividly describes the end of the war' Independent on Sunday
'Crackenthorpe...weaves a complicated plotline around his romantic hero but his laconic prose sidesteps both sentimentality and derring-do' Guardian
'ambitious...thriller, which vividly describes the end of the war' The Times
...a thoughtful and evocative reminder of how the mid-century upheaval of the war still casts a dark, foreboding shadow over France...Crackanthorpe's first novel, Stolen Marches, stood critical comparison with Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong; this might be compared with Charlotte Gray, and should appeal to the same market.' The Bookseller
'The morally and politically ambiguous world of post-Liberation France provides a gripping backdrop for Mr Crackanthorpe's first book.' Yorkshire Evening Press
'a relish for the colourful, telling piece of detail, some sharp characterisation...a refusal to prettify or simplify events and their effects and, at the same time, a respect for a good story and a well-orchestrated plot...a thoughtful, ambiguous and unshowy reprise about the way humans behave after a great watershed in history.' The Times
'Crackanthorpe utillises the chaotic backgorund of newly liberated France in 1945 to dazzling effect' The Times
'A story of love and betrayal, ideals and deceptions, that brilliantly evokes the morally and politically ambiguous world of post-Liberation France' Living France
'despite the immaculate quality in the writing, the action is neither plotty nor ploddy...Everywhere, the prose keeps up a continous murmur of threat and risk. All France is here, and treachery, love, self-sacrifice, accident and ambition tighten the story's tensions. This is the thriller of the year so far; the thinking man's Jack Higgins' Mail on Sunday
'a strong debut...reminiscent of Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong' Daily Mail
'a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes in occupied France during the Second World War' Woman & Home
'Set in the 1940s, it is a political novel dealing with the ambiguities of post-liberation France, as Communists, collaborators and the bourgeoisie compete to fill a power vacuum. It is also a quest story, in which the hero must rescue his pre-war lover, Ida, a Romay prostitute who had disappeared into a concentration camp. And it is a tale of high adventure in which three companions are united against the world...an original and interesting novel' The Sunday Telegraph
'If you like the books of Sebastian Faulks and Charles Frazier, then you might fancy David Crackenthorpe's French wartime novel Stolen Marches' She
'Absorbing... Romance, danger and intrigue, in a cool and controlled literary style' The Good Book Guide
Biographie de l'auteur
David Cracknathorpe was born at Newbiggin and studied law at Oxford University. He practised as a barrister in London, where he married the Irish actress Helena Hughes, now deceased. He lives in France where he has worked as a forester, gardener and cultivator of olive trees.
