A Stain on the Silence - Tapa dura

Past mistakes can be forgotten - but never erased . . .

The last person James wants to meet again is Lily. But now she's dying of cancer, and he is wholly unprepared for what she has to tell him. Twenty-four years ago, she gave birth to a daughter - and James is the girl's father.

James was just a teenager when he and Lily - stepmother of his best friend Carlo - had their brief affair. Practically part of the family, he would spend his summer holidays at their sprawling house in Chipping Weston, lapping up the breathtaking freedom and excitement. Though perhaps there was too much freedom and too much excitement - because those days came to a terrible end. An end that James has been trying to forget ever since.

Yet Lily has one more secret to reveal. Their daughter is now a wanted woman. She's on the run for murder. Soon James is compelled to reach back into the past and discover the other bitter fruits of his and Lily's unfortunate union ...

Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of crime novels, including the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed drama Fallen Angel, and the historical crime novels The Ashes of London, The Silent Boy, and The American Boy, a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller and a 2005 Richard & Judy Book Club Choice.
He has won many awards, including the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award (the only author to win it three times) and the CWA's prestigious Diamond Dagger.