West Berlin, October 1979. Helen Abell is a young American, employed by the CIA to oversee a number of safe houses. She arrives in Berlin, expecting excitement and intrigue, and is disappointed to find the city a Cold War backwater.

But one night, during a routine house inspection, she stumbles upon two dark but very different secrets. If made public, they could damage the careers of high-ranking people with powerful ambitions. But Helen decides that the price of silence might be costlier still, so she covertly works to reveal the truth even as she risks her career.

Maryland, August 2014. In a small farming town, a young man called Willard Shoat gets up one night and shoots his parents while they are sleeping. His sister Anna hires a private investigator to help her understand her brother's motives. As they delve into the events leading up to her parents' deaths, Anna uncovers some startling secrets from her mother's past...

'An intelligent novel with psychology foregrounded ... But can also raise readers' pulses' GUARDIAN.