Europe teeters on the edge of catastrophe in 1911. A secret diplomatic meeting between the Czar and the leaders of Austria and Germany threatens to redraw the map of the continent, and two men have glimpsed only the edges of the conspiracy: Bellamy, a spy racing against time, and Dorward, a journalist whose sources have gone dark. As they piece together fragments of the truth, they sense war coming like a storm front, inevitable and devastating. Into their desperate hunt steps Louise, a woman whose allegiances remain deliciously unclear, drawing Bellamy into a web of emotion and danger that complicates every move. Oppenheim constructs his espionage thriller with the elegance of a chess master, trading in coded messages, double agents, and the quiet luxury of drawing rooms where empires are discusssed over brandy. The tension never lets up, but neither does the seductive pull of the world Oppenheim creates: one where men in frock coats decide the fate of millions, and where love is just another weapon in a game with no rules. This is pre-WWI intrigue at its finest, a portrait of a civilization about to shatter.
