'Liked this. Went someway to plugging the ginormous hole that Philip Kerr's sad passing has left in my life' DERMOT O'LEARY.

Spring, 1941. The war in the West is as good as won. Nation after nation has fallen before the Reich's armies. Only Britain endures, her cities under nightly bombardment from the Luftwaffe.

Berlin would happily call off the bombers in exchange for a peace treaty. Hitler would like to persuade Britain to turn her back on Europe, to attend to her precious Empire instead, to allow Germany a free hand to deal with the real enemy in the East.

Peace, perhaps, but at what cost?

For Churchill the price is too high; but for others within the British establishment, it is a price worth paying. On both sides of the channel, advocates of total war or peace-at-all-costs are at each others' throats - all unaware that Rudolf Hess, Hitler's quiet, contemplative deputy, has already taken radical steps to change the fortunes of the war...