My Beautiful Spy

'Nick Davis first saw Daniela Simonici in the American Bar of the Athenee Palace Hotel in Bucharest in June of 1940. He couldn't take his eyes off her. The city was full of beautiful women, penniless countesses and fox-furred demimondaines looking to be rescued, and until that moment he had spared them only an appreciative glance. But this woman was different . . . '

As indeed she proved to be. Nick is a tall, dark and handsome fortyish Oxbridge-educated British spy posing as a British diplomat (think Colin Firth). Married with two sons at school back in London, he's working in Bucharest in the early days of World War II. Bucharest is known as a 'little Paris', a city of fashion, art and culture with beautiful boulevards, even an Arc de Triomphe. But the Germans have recently arrived, and the local fascists are terrorising Romanian Jews. One such Jew is Daniela Simonici. She's also the mistress of a German businessman who is a member of German intelligence.

Nick and Daniela meet and they fall for each other, hard. When the Nazis finally take over Bucharest Nick relocates to Istanbul. So does Daniela. Soon she is spying for Nick, supplying him with valuable information while posing as a spy for the Germans, feeding them information carefully constructed by Nick and his superiors. Nick is in love and believes Daniela loves him too. He trusts her implicitly - but should he? Daniela once told him she's a great actress. As doubts begin to surface Nick finds himself falling into a vortex of mistrust. Who is Daniela Simonici? Who does she really love? And who is she really spying for?

'My Beautiful Spy' is an unforgettable love story set against a dramatic backdrop richly rendered in colour, light and shade by a master of historical fiction. Falconer always visits the cities in which he sets his stories, and it shows: the detail and description are fantastic, transporting the reader like some fabulous forties Hollywood movie. Nick is a hero you'll fall in love with; Daniela a woman you'll never forget.