There is the very long time alone with a story, and then there are the people who turn it from private to public. Thank you to Clara Farmer, whose unique talent makes books more themselves. Thanks to Caroline Wood, who is both reader and champion, and to Rachel Cugnoni and Richard Cable. Many thanks to Suzanne Dean and Lily Richards, for the cover design, and to Harriet Dobson, Fran Owen and Sophie Mitchell – not least for their patience.

I am lucky to have Terry Karten’s insight and faith, and many thanks also to Stephanie Cabot and Jonathan Burnham.

Dr Charlotte Harris helped me enormously with the research into French criminal procedure. Any inaccuracies were made either in error, for which I apologise, or to suit my story, for which I can’t.

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Copyright

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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Chatto & Windus is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

Copyright © Sadie Jones 2019
Design © Suzanne Dean incorporating photograph © Marc Aitkens/panoptika.net
Author photograph © Jonathan Greet

Sadie Jones has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published by Chatto & Windus in 2019

penguin.co.uk/vintage

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781473558700

Table of Contents

Title Page

About the Author

By the Same Author

Dedication

Epigraph

PART ONE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

PART TWO

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

PART THREE

21

22

23

24

25

26

PART FOUR

27

28

29

30

31

Acknowledgements

Copyright