Publisher's Synopsis
Summer, 1926. Working for Interpol, Joe Sandilands is despatched to Reims representing British interests in an unusual case. French war-widow Aline Houdart runs a champagne estate on the Marne, and is determined that Joe should support her claim that a shell-shocked soldier in the local sanatorium, without speech or memory, is her husband. But a strange conflict has arisen - the patient has also been claimed by three other families... Aided by Inspector Bonnefoye, he investigates all the claimants. Amid a tangle of lies and manipulation Joe uncovers a murder committed during the war. And when he discovers who the soldier is, Joe and Bonnefoye face an even greater dilemma. They must work quickly, not only to solve a past crime, but to avert a fresh tragedy.
