A crime fiction reviewer for London's Guardian, Laura Wilson knows a thing or two about hard-hitting historical thrillers. Despite the carnage of World War II, British Detective Ted Stratton finds that criminals never take a holiday, and in this series, his skills will be tested to the limit.

Summer, 1944. Called on to investigate when a doctor is found dead in Fitzrovia's Middlesex Hospital, DI Ted Stratton soon realizes that someone has discarded their own identity and embarked on a killing spree. Meanwhile Jenny, Ted's wife, is working at the local recovery center when a bombed-out woman shows up, declaring that the man claiming to be her husband is an imposter. The reality is much stranger, and in this sequel to The Innocent Spy, far more dangerous.