On the surface, Anna Witherall has the perfect life. Married to her university boyfriend David, she has an enviable job, beautiful home, and gorgeous three-year-old twin daughters, Stella and Rose. Their competent and capable nanny, Maria, is practically part of the family.
But beneath the veneer of success and happiness, Anna is hiding a dark secret, one that threatens to unravel everything she has worked so hard to create. Only one thing is certain: to protect her children, she must betray them.
โCompelling and complex โ a compulsive readโ Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange
โEveryone has an agenda in this intriguing exploration of deceit and duplicity, as Philby ratchets up the paranoia to Highsmithian levelsโ Guardian
โAn enigmatic and slippery beast, a cool new generation of spy novel. Just as the characters play cat and mouse with one another, so does the author with her readers โ itโs a guessing game right to the end and I turned the last page with my heart pounding. Recommendedโ LOUISE CANDLISH
โI devoured this beautifully written, intricately wrought and unique blend of spy thriller and domestic suspense. The twists keep coming, right down to that chilling last lineโ ERIN KELLY
CHARLOTTE PHILBY worked for the Independent for eight years as a columnist, editor and reporter, and was shortlisted for the Cudlipp Prize for her investigative journalism at the 2013 Press Awards. A former contributing editor and feature writer at Marie Claire, she has written for the New Statesman, Elle, The Telegraph, Guardian and Sunday Times, and presented documentaries for the BBC World Service and The One Show. Charlotte is the granddaughter of Kim Philby, Britainโs most infamous communist double-agent, the elusive โthird manโ in the notorious Cambridge spy ring. This is her third novel.