‘Icelight’ by Aly Monroe

Published by John Murray,
5 July 2012. 
ISBN:978-1-84854-485-7

This spy novel is set in London in 1947. The atmosphere of that time is superbly evoked so that the hardships that the British lived through then are clearly described and almost tangible. Food and clothes are still rationed, the black market is operating, coal is hard to get and much of the city is in ruins with German POWs efficiently clearing the bomb sites. As if all that wasn’t enough the winter of 1947 is appalling - cold & snowy for months.

Peter Cotton is seconded to Operation Sea-Snake when MI5 is in a civil war and traitors riddle the whole system. Peter does not know who to trust as he tries to protect a scientist faced with homophobia, deals with an uptight US colleague, has to rely on a rent boy informant and finds that an MP wants to set up his own intelligence network. Fortunately, Peter can handle all these threats plus other more personal attacks. This picture of life in 1947 features real individuals and political events as well as generic references to the hardships of even pursuing a normal life. It is absolutely fascinating!
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Reviewer: Jennifer S. Palmer

Aly Monroe is the author of the Peter Cotton series, which begins in 1944, and takes us to different countries around the world during the aftermath of the second world war and the dismantling of the British colonies. The first three books in the series are, The Maze of Cadiz, Washington Shadow', and Icelight, the latter was the winner of the 2012 CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger.