First in a crime series set in London during the Blitz in 1940-41, featuring Detective Inspector John Jago and American journalist Dorothy Appleton. The jagged blast of high explosives rip through the evening air. In the sky over East London the searchlights criss-cross in search of the enemy. On the first night of the Blitz, a corpse is discovered in a van in the back streets of West Ham. Detective Inspector John Jago recognises the dead man as local Justice of the Peace Charles Villiers. But a German bomb obliterates all evidence. Villiers was not a popular man, both powerful and detested. As the air raid sirens wail Jago starts matching motive to opportunity. His impossible task is made worse when his superior foists an American journalist upon him. As Jago follows leads, he discovers that the dead man held many secrets, some of which reach back to World War I. A lot of people wished Villiers dead – and an air raid is a good time to bury bad news.
