Codename Istanbul

Istanbul, spring 1939. The war Berlin has been preparing for has not yet begun.

The Foreign Office sends Charles Eddington - twelve years a diplomat, twelve months since the failure in Jerusalem - to persuade the émigré scholar Avram Stern to authenticate a set of ancient prophetic photographs. The brief is patient cultivation. The deadline is sixty days. The mission, Charles will discover, is not what it appears to be.

Four months in, reading his own consulate's cable file, Charles finds the operation he is actually running. He is not its principal. He is its surface - the visible British attempt, designed to be seen and to fail.

By the time the German army crosses the Polish border in September, Charles will have to choose between the role London has written for him and the work the role has made possible. The choice will cost him every relationship he has earned in the city, and the cost will be paid in installments he cannot foresee.

A literary historical-espionage novel in the tradition of Alan Furst and Eric Ambler.

Book 2 of The Eddington Files.