SIMON TOLKIEN

From the slums of London to the riches of an Edwardian country house; from the hot, dark seams of a Yorkshire coalmine to the exposed terrors of the trenches, Adam Raine's journey from boy to man is set against the backdrop of a society violently entering the modern world. Adam Raine is a boy cursed by misfortune. His impoverished childhood in the slums of Islington is brought to an end by a tragedy that sends him north to Scarsdale, a hard-living coalmining town where his father finds work as a union organizer. But it isn't long before the escalating tensions between the miners and their employer, Sir John Scarsdale, explode with terrible consequences. In the aftermath, Adam meets Miriam, the Rector's beautiful daughter, and moves into Scarsdale Hall, an opulent paradise compared with the life he has been used to before. But he makes an enemy of Sir John's son, Brice, who subjects him to endless petty cruelties for daring to step above his station. When love and an Oxford education beckon, Adam feels that his life is finally starting to come together - until the outbreak of war threatens to tear everything apart.

The grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien makes a thrilling debut as a novelist in this suspenseful courtroom drama that will have you guessing to the very end."Don't let the author's last name confuse you, for there are no Hobbits in this debut novel by the grandson of J.R.R.

It's 1960, and David Swain is two years into his life sentence for murdering the lover of his ex-girlfriend, Katya Osman In the dead of night, David escapes from prison, and that same night Katya is found murdered in her uncle's home, Blackwater Hall...

It’s the trial – and scandal – of the decade: Greta Grahame, the beautiful young wife of Sir Peter Robinson MP, is accused of conspiring to murder her predecessor, Peter’s first wife Lady Anne.The prosecution case depends heavily on the evidence of one witness - Gretas sixteen-year-old stepson Thomas who was present on the night two hitmen broke into their ancestral home. His testimony steadfastly links Greta to the killers.But the boy’s motives are unclear. Is he so crazed by grief that he would frame his stepmother for murder? Or is he telling the truth – that this cunning young woman will stop at nothing in her pursuit of wealth and status . . . ?

From the slums of London to the riches of an Edwardian country house; from the hot, dark seams of a Yorkshire coalmine to the exposed terrors of the trenches, Adam Raine's journey from boy to man is set against the backdrop of a society violently entering the modern world.Adam Raine is a boy cursed by misfortune. His impoverished childhood in the slums of Islington is brought to an end by a tragedy that sends him north to Scarsdale, a hard-living coalmining town where his father finds work as a union organizer. But it isn't long before the escalating tensions between the miners and their employer, Sir John Scarsdale, explode with terrible consequences.In the aftermath, Adam meets Miriam, the Rector's beautiful daughter, and moves into Scarsdale Hall, an opulent paradise compared with the life he has been used to before. But he makes an enemy of Sir John's son, Brice, who subjects him to endless petty cruelties for daring to step above his station.When love and an Oxford education beckon, Adam feels that his life is finally starting to come together - until the outbreak of war threatens to tear everything apart.