As World War II sweeps over Europe, nine-year-old Danielle ("Dani") Loesseps escapes from Latvia under the protection of the Dutch consul. Her Jewish mother, the consul's secretary, is tragically left behind at the end of a momentous year which sees a heroic scheme to save refugees from the Nazis, the blossoming of a secret love, and an unhappy woman's revenge. The consul's young daughter Berta Vandercam also grows up in the shadow of the war and...

Introducing Sarah McKinney ... lawyer and international mediator. Celebrating the conclusion of a case in London, she is hit by a stray bullet. When she meets the intended targets, a beautiful young Jordanian woman and her lover, a journalist on the hunt for the hidden assets of Middle-Eastern strongmen, she is drawn into a criminal intrigue that follows her home to Decatur, Georgia. The Sphinx has the answers -- but who has the Sphinx?

"Nothing much happens in Britain in the week between Christmas and the New Year." Sarah McKinney's plan for a cozy vacation with her lover turns towards terror when she travels from her home in Decatur, Georgia to London for the holidays. Sarah encounters a figure from her troubled childhood who may hold the key to resolving a string of recent deaths. The search for a link between these random killings leads Sarah from London to Oxford and South Wales,...