‘Step forward Kanon, the American Robert Harris, a man who finds untold stories from our recent past and brings them alive’ TIM SHIPMAN, SUNDAY TIMES

Daniel Lohr, sensing that the Nazis are closing in on the Jews, leaves his dying father in Berlin and boards a ship to Shanghai. His passage is dependent upon him delivering a package to his shady uncle, his father’s brother, upon arrival. Daniel has no idea what the package contains. On board is Leah, also fleeing the Nazis. She and Daniel conduct a passionate but brief shipboard affair, but are separated as soon as the ship docks in Shanghai. Will he ever see her again?

Daniel is immediately plunged into his uncle’s seductive and corrupt world, and becomes involved in the launch of a new nightclub, the biggest, best and most glitzy in town. When violence breaks out and lives are at risk, he finds himself drawn irrevocably into the terrifying underworld that is wartime Shanghai.

Beautifully atmospheric and intricately plotted, this masterful thriller marks exciting new ground for an author hailed by the Sunday Times as ‘the most accomplished spy novelist working today’.

PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: 

'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times

'Heart-poundingly suspenseful' Washington Post

'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era' The Times

'Thoroughly absorbing, a thoughtful and subtle evocation of a place and era' Sunday Telegraph

‘Arguably America’s greatest writer of historical thrillers’ Sunday Times

'Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape' Lee Child 

'Sensational! No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense – not to mention substance – as Joseph Kanon' Scott Turow

'The perfect combination of intrigue and accurate history brought to life' Alan Furst