Tug of War A Joe Sandilands Mystery

1926. The war-ravaged vineyards of France. In this masterpiece of suspense from CWA Historical Dagger Awardwinner Barbara Cleverly, a nameless soldier plunges Scotland Yard inspector Joe Sandilands into a shifting world of deception, rage, and murder.... A well-earned vacation takes a sharp detour when Sandilands is called to France, where a shell-shocked patienta tragic casualty of waris in the throes of a violent nightmare. Trying to determine the mystery man's identity proves a difficult, internationally delicate task: several families are claiming the unknown soldier as their own. But it is at a famed chateau, where the wine flows and disturbing secrets abound, that Sandilands meets a woman who takes his investigation in a chillingly different direction. Strong-willed and alluring Aline Houdart's husband has been missing and presumed dead for nearly ten years. Her true motives are as elusive as the truth about a long-ago night...when a horrific crime was committed and lives changed forever. Now Sandilands, an ex-soldier himself, a man who has seen his share of bloodshed and sorrow, is waging his own battle for justice. It is a fight for his fallen comrades that will unmask a killer. Or bury the truth forever...

Barbara Cleverly is the author of five novels of historical suspense, including The Damascened Blade, winner of the CWA Historical Dagger Award, The Last Kashmiri Rose, Ragtime in Simla, The Palace Tiger, and The Bee’s Kiss. She lives in Cambridge, England where she is now at work on the second Laetitia Talbot mystery, which Delta will publish in 2008.