The doctor brushed lightly at his sleeves then made for the door. Before leaving he looked back; a safe distance from the bed now, a slow hauteur squared his shoulders inside the boxy suit. ?Don't think,' he said, ?that we trust you.' Blinking, expressionless, Brookes lay in the bed without moving until he heard the key turn in the lock. I don't trust you either. Brookes, a British army captain, awakes after being wounded in the mountains of Italy to find himself a guest of the baron of Castelmantia in his remote castle. He can remember the ambush by Mussolini's fascists, the panic of the rebels, the bloodshed, and being struck by a bullet. And there are other things too ? things he'd rather not remember. Instead, he turns his attention to the castle and its strange inhabitants, a family of four ? a couple, their daughter and young son ? who both intrigue and repel him. As winter locks them into the castle and the conflict escalates beyond their walls, Brookes finds himself drawn into the mystery at the heart of the family, determined to understand the game they seem to be playing. Who are they really? Why do they live alone in that bleak, decaying place? What do they want from him? But then Brookes is not quite what he seems either, and his intrusion into the family's lonely existence will have explosive results, leaving an unforgettable imprint on each of them. AUTHOR Ian Breckon was born in 1970. He began to write while teaching English in Italy. He has recently returned to England and now lives in Bath where he is at work on his second novel, a murder mystery set on the French Riviera in the 1920s. SELLING POINTS: ?Easy to read literary fiction with an enticing mystery at its heart ?The setting ? the fall of fascism in Italy at the end of WWII ? is relatively unexplored in fiction For fans of WINTER IN MADRID by C J Sansom and EMBERS by Sandor Marai
