Set in the dark world of international espionage, from London to
Mallorca, Croatia, Paris, and Cap Ferret: the gripping and suspenseful
story of a young woman who unwittingly becomes a perfect asset in the
long overdue finale of a covert special op
The young English narrator of Lea Carpenter's dazzling new novel has
grown up unhappily in London, dreaming of escape, pretending to be
someone else and obsessed with a locked private garden. On the eve of
her twenty-first birthday, at a party near that garden, she meets its
charismatic and mysterious new owner, Marcus, thirty-three years older,
who sweeps her off her feet. Before long they are married at his finca
in Mallorca, and at last she has escaped into a new role - but at what
price? On their honeymoon in Croatia, Marcus reveals there is something
she can do for him--a plan is in place and she can help with "a favor."
This turns out to be posing as an art advisor to a family on Cap Ferret,
where Marcus asks her to simply "listen." A helicopter deposits her at a
remote, highly guarded and lavishly appointed compound on a spit of land
in the Atlantic. It's presided over by an enigmatic, charming patriarch
Edouard, along with his wife Dasha, children Nikki and Felix, and
populated by a revolving cast of other guests--some suspicious, some
intriguing, perhaps none, like her, what they seem.
Brilliantly compelling, this is a spellbinding and unexpectedly poignant
story of a long- planned, high-stakes CIA-Mossad operation that only
needed the right asset to complete.
