The Collaborators

Description

From the bestselling author of the Dalziel and Pascoe series, a superb novel of wartime passion, loyalty - and betrayal When Janine Simonian was dragged roughly from her cell to face trial as a collaborator in the days of reckoning that followed the liberation of France, she refused to conceal her shaven skull from the jeering crowds that greeted her. Before the jury of former Resistance members pledged to extract vengeance on all who had connived in Nazi rule, Janine stood proudly in court - and pleaded guilty to the charges. Why did so many French men and women collaborate with the Nazi occupation forces whilst others gave their lives in resistance? Were the motives of those who betrayed their country always selfish - and those of the Resistance always noble? The Collaborators is a superb novel of conscience and betrayal that portrays the human dilemmas brought about by the Nazi occupation of France, and asks uncomfortable questions about the priorities of personal and national loyalty in time of war.

Reginald Hill was brought up in Cumbria, and has returned there after many years in Yorkshire. With his first crime novel, A Clubbable Woman, he was hailed as 'the crime novel's best hope' and thirty years on he has more than fulfilled that prophecy.

Praise for 'The Collaborators': 'A gripping and atmospheric period thriller.' Daily Mail 'Hill probes the human heart and the way it shifts with the changing demands and temptations of the Occupation in this subtle, complex and powerful novel whose issues are all too present today." Oxford Times 'One of the most consistently excellent crime novelists' Times 'Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace' Donna Leon, Sunday Times 'The fertility of Hill's imagination, the range of his power, the sheer quality of his literary style never cease to delight' Val McDermid, Sunday Express 'Probably the best living male crime writer in the English-speaking world' Andrew Taylor, Independent 'Reginald Hill's novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories entwining' Ian Rankin, Scotland on Sunday 'Reginald Hill is on of the finest crime writers ever' Sunday Telegraph