Many thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for an early copy in return for an honest review.

This book was amazing , and as I have read all of Liz Fenwick's books now WWII, Dr Meredith Tremayne has been seconded from her post as a lecturer at Oxford University, to the war office to help with her knowledge to update maps for the military.

Meredith's French widowed mother suddenly goes missing from the family home in Cornwall, just as Meredith is about to be deployed there.

Meredith meets Jake Russell, an American who went to Canada to enable him to join the. war effort. An ex journalist, Meredith is attracted to him.... but is quite hard nosed about the relationship as she is determined to become an Oxford professor ...and marriage and a career in the 1940's don't work in the UK.

Meredith becomes part of the team, and updates maps and the military's knowledge of the Normandy coast.

Meredith's brother is convinced that their mother is dead after her bicycle and artists paint box are found .... and then a few weeks later loses his life when his plane is shot down .

The book keeps you wanting to read more, and several times moves the reader to tears.