Under Arras

He stood quite stationary, then a tremble ran through him and almost in slow motion he pitched sideways into the narrow passage. He lay among the puddles and rubbish, twitching. Then there was a final shudder and a narrow stream of blood ran onto the cobbles and was washed away in the rain. Chambliss lit a cigarette and surveyed the body. Stunned by the sudden ferocity of the attack, I gazed down at the corpse. I felt Chambliss’ mouth close to my ear and his hot breath on my cheek. ‘No time for sightseeing, old sport.’ It's autumn 1920. When Walter Davies, a lowly Treasury official, sets off to attend a League of Nations conference in Brussels he anticipates nothing more exacting than a round of dull sessions in dusty meeting rooms and draughty corridors. What he least expects is to be caught up in a murderous plot to destabilise the British Mandate in Mesopotamia. But as he discovers, another far deadlier, game is afoot. Short-sighted and wielding nothing deadlier than an umbrella, Davies is drawn into a taut, helter-skelter ride which takes him from the ruins and squalor of a war-ravaged France to the seedy backstreets of Brussels. Under Arras is a gripping thriller set in an almost forgotten episode of European history with a cast that includes T. E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell and, of course, a beautiful girl.