FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA

'The indisputable queen of the sophisticated literary thriller' LAURA SHEPHERD ROBINSON

'Du Maurier pulls off several spectacular high-wire acts that other writers wouldn't' GUARDIAN

Like Icarus, he flew too near the sun. Like Lucifer, he fell.

When Armino Fabbio returns to his childhood town after years working as a tour guide in Rome, he discovers a sinister political movement simmering in its streets. Behind its picturesque Medieval walls, Ruffano hides a dark history: five hundred years ago it was ruled by a crazed tyrant known as the Falcon, whose life - and fateful death - still haunt the city.

Now, in the wake of the Second World War, someone is trying to redeem the Falcon's legacy. Could Fabbio's brother Aldo, believed to have been shot down in flames in the war, be at the centre of the conspiracy? And as past and present collide, is Ruffano doomed to repeat its violent history?

'[Her] most political novel . . . Temptation and guilt are what set du Maurier's imagination alight' AMANDA CRAIG

'A great gothic writer' KATE MOSSE