Who can you trust when no one is who they claim to be?
City of Spies
1943. SOE agent Elisabeth de Mornay's cover is blown and she must flee Paris. Making her way to neutral Portugal, she receives a new identity and mission: to break a German espionage ring targeting Allied shipping before more men die.
Shortlisted for CrimeFest's Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award 2020
Lisbon, the real-life "City of Spies"
As a European capital that was both neutral and a port city, during WW2 Lisbon quickly became a centre for intrigue, with exiled aristocrats, diplomats, businessmen, artists, smugglers, refugees and, of course, operatives, all obsessively watching (and often plotting against) each other, all under the watchful eye of António de Oliveira Salazar and his state police, the PVDE.
On top of that, espionage rings operated out of Lisbon's port, wolfram/tungsten was smuggled out of Portugal, and up until the '70s, a "secret" passageway connected Rossio Station to the hotel next door, potentially facilitating a few dodgy meetings.
Lisbon was the perfect backdrop for City of Spies.
