Some secrets are best kept hidden... 

Nick Paleologus is summoned to resolve a dispute that threatens to tear his family apart. His father, Michael, is a retired archaeologist and supposed descendant of the last Emperors of Byzantium. Michael has received a hugely generous offer for the family home in Cornwall, but refuses to sell - and refuses to divulge why. 

But soon the stalemate between Nick's siblings and their father is tragically broken. And only then do they discover why their father was bound to protect the house at all costs. 

Their desperate efforts to conceal the truth drag them into a deadly conflict with an unseen and unknown enemy. Soon, Nick realises the only chance they have of escaping from their persecutor's trap is to hunt this ruthless adversary down. But the hunt involves excavating a terrible secret from their father's past. And once that secret is known, nothing will ever be the same again.

"Fuses history with crime, guilty consciences and human fallibility in a way that makes his books an intelligent escapist delight" ( The Times) 

"An absorbing, contemporary thriller with a hint of mysticism. Highly recommended" ( Good Book Guide) 

"Gripping... woven together with more twists than a country lane" ( Daily Mail)

A riveting bestseller from one of the UK's biggest thriller writers.

Robert Goddard was born in Hampshire. He read History at Cambridge and worked as an educational administrator in Devon before becoming a full-time novelist. He is the author of many bestselling novels, including Into the Blue which won the first WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award and was dramatized for TV in 1997, starring John Thaw.