Evelyn Anthony Knihy

The Cold war was over, and Europe's spy network is dismantled. Harry Oakham, pensioned off at 52, is bitter and sets about contacting his old friends and enemies with the idea of setting up a crime syndicate.

'The child heard a whisper, "Diana - in here darling," in a voice she didn't know. The child drew back, watching unseen, and the woman passed by. She didn't see the one who followed her, but the child did.' Nancy Percival used to wake screaming from this nightmare, but she hadn't had the dream for years. She'd only dropped off for a few moments in the car. Why now? Because her lover is taking her to Ashton. He doesn't know it was the house of the Vandekars, where Nancy was born. Once there, she will be face to face with her past and the dreadful secret that has haunted her since childhood.

Snag number one is her difficult hero, Steven Falconi, son of a New York Mafiosi, who meets pretty, blond Angela Drummond, a Sussex doctor's daughter, in Palermo during the war. Angels gets pregnant by and married to Steven in short order, but then vanishes when she learns about her husband's violent stateside life. Imagining Angela to be the victim of a German bomb, Steven goes home to the ""family"" in New York and marries Clara, the overripe and insanely jealous daughter of a rival don.

Frank Arbuthnot, rejecting his background of wealth and privilege, becomes a pawn in the murderous game of Irish politics and is betrayed by Marie, a beautiful terrorist who is insanely jealous of Frank's halfsister