Come in from the Cold - Charlotte Milne

Wartime love and murder throw a long shadow.

Annie Devereux, humiliated and bruised by her divorce, retreats to David Mackenzie's cottage in the Scottish Highlands to research the mysterious wartime history of her grandfather, serving on the Arctic convoys supplying Russia in World War 2.

In 1942 John Elliott comes off convoy a sick man and is billeted on nineteen-year-old Mhairi to recuperate. But Mhairi's relationship with a dangerous and manipulative black marketeer brings trouble and death. Fingers of fear and uncertainty reach into the future.

David, grieving his dead wife and seemingly unable to move on with either life or relationships, is intrigued by Annie's discovery of a connection between his grandmother and Annie's grandfather. As Annie and David begin to peel away the hidden memories of ninety-year-old Mhairi, dark secrets surface - a doomed wartime love and a death which still affects the living.

Soon Annie has a secret of her own but concealing it was the worst decision she ever made. Both Annie and David must find a path to healing and reconciliation before they can come in from the cold.