Winter in Madrid

September 24, 2007
The playing fields of Rookwood did little to prepare reluctant spy Harry Brett for the moral no man's land of post–Civil War Spain that awaits him in this cinematic historical thriller from British author Sansom (Sovereign
). But those halcyon days have made him one of the few people likely to win the confidence of fellow old boy Sandy Forsyth, now a shady Madrid businessman, Franco associate and object of intense curiosity to British intelligence. Despite his reservations, Brett—whose best friend from Rookwood, Bernie Piper, disappeared in Spain a few years earlier while battling Franco with the International Brigade—accepts the assignment as his duty, and almost as swiftly regrets it. For the Madrid he finds has become a mockery of the vibrant, hopeful place he and Bernie visited during the dawn of the Republic. As in his Matthew Shardlake mystery series set in Tudor London, Sansom deftly plots his politically charged tale for maximal suspense, all the way up to its stunning conclusion. A bestseller in the U.K., this moving opus leaves the reader mourning for the Spain that might have been—and the England that maybe never was.

December 1, 2007
With Sovereign (2007), Sansom added the third installment to hisgreatly captivating historical mystery series featuring a lawyer-sleuth in Henry VIII's England. He now offersa completely enveloping novel set in early-1940s Spain. The ruinous Spanish civil war has just ended, with Francisco Franco establishedin power. The question nowis, will Franco remain neutral in World War II or come in on the side of his benefactors, Hitler and Mussolini? Into this tense atmosphere steps a nervous British lieutenant, Harry Brett, who had been invalided out of the army but is thenrecruited to go to Spain. He is thereostensibly to function as an interpreter attached to the British embassy in Madrid but really to spy on an old school chumwho is thought by British intelligence services to be involved with the fascist wing of the Franco government. A combination of historical novel and spy thriller, this evocation of a dangerous diplomatic environment, where no one can trust anyone, will have widespread appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)