Troubled Midnight

Police detective Tommy Livermore and his partner--and secret lover--Suzie Mountford are called in to investigate when the badly brutalized corpses of the commanding officer in a nearby airport and the wife of a local military hero are discovered in a small Berkshire town, a crime that could have profound implications for the upcoming British invasion of Nazi Europe. 15,000 first printing.

In 1943, The United Kingdom is alive with men and women making ready for the greatest invasion in history: preparing to assault Hitler's Fortress Europe. The skies are full of training aircraft, their engines merging with the throb of the RAF and USAAF bombers heading on round-the-clock missions against Germany.

With fresh bloodshed on the horizon, the coming Christmas preparations seem even more poignant. But with just ten days to go, the seasonal mood is shattered in the quiet market town of Wantage in Berkshire by the discovery of two badly battered bodies. It seems that the victims were tortured before being beaten to death. Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Livermore and DS Suzie Mountford, Tommy's right-hand woman and secret lover, are assigned to the case.

The bodies are identified as Lieutenant Colonel Tim Weaving, an officer commanding a detachment from the Glider Pilot Regiment stationed at a nearby airfield; and Emily Burrage, wife of the town's hero, an officer with the Desert Rats who was awarded the Victoria Cross at Tobruk.

As they begin to investigate the double murder, Tommy and Suzie are joined by Curry Shepherd, a representative of the Intelligence Services. It is possible that an enemy agent has interrogated Tim Weaving and as he was in possession of information concerning the plans for Overlord—-the Allied plan for the invasion of occupied Europe—-things become urgent. Suzie finds herself seconded to War Office Intelligence Liaison and so enters the secret world.

This is a surprising, dark, and imaginative novel from one of Britain's best thriller writers.

Publishers Weekly

Prolific British author Gardner, in the introduction to his predictable fourth Suzie Mountford mystery (after 2004's Angels Dining at the Ritz), makes no apology for hanging his tale on a premise at least four other novelists have used before-the Nazis' efforts to learn the British secret plans for invading Normandy. Mountford, a Woman Detective Sergeant, becomes involved in espionage when her investigation into the torture-murder of a colonel reveals that the victim was part of the inner circle of military strategists. She's drafted into the ranks of British intelligence, which complicates her tense relationship with her lover and superior, Supt. Tommy Livermore. None of the characters is especially memorable, while Mountford's usual competence and self-sufficiency is again undercut by her role toward the end as a damsel in distress. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

In the fourth entry in Gardner's World War II-era mystery series, Detective Sergeant Suzie Mountford follows her partner, Tommy Livermore, to the town of Wantage, where the brutalized corpses of an air-force colonel and his lover have turned up. Were they merely killed, or also grilled, and did they spill that most top of secrets: the impending Allied invasion at Normandy? Enter secret agent Curry Shepherd, Tom's old school chum and fellow toff, who runs away with the case and Suzie's affections