A “damn near irresistible” novel of friendship, fast cars, and spying for the Resistance in occupied France—based on a true story (Time Out London).
On a crisp autumn night in the twenty-first century, a car is pulled from the depths of an Austrian lake. A skeleton grips the wheel. Finally, an answer: William Grover-Williams, the premier English race-car driver of his generation and a hero of the French Resistance, met his end at the bottom of a mountain lake.
Or did he?
In the Roaring Twenties, Grover-Williams and Frenchman Robert Benoist were teammates and rivals on the Bugatti racing team. Locked in a fierce competition for the world championship, they also raced to win the heart of the gorgeous Eve Aubicq. Then the war changed everything—and nothing. As members of the British Special Operations Executive, Grover-Williams and Benoist dashed across France in support of the Resistance, but it wasn’t just the Nazis they had to watch out for. Double agents were everywhere, and friendship—or love, for that matter—was no guarantee of loyalty. Every morning, Will, Robert, and Eve had to look in the mirror and ask: Whom can I trust today? The wrong answer might just have spelled their doom.
Early One Morning is the 1st book in the Secret War Trilogy, which also includes Blue Noon and Night Crossing.
Robert Ryan was born in Liverpool and has worked as a race car mechanic, journalist, jazz composer, university lecturer, and more. He has written many novels, including Early One Morning, a Sunday Times (UK) bestseller. He lives in North London with his wife, three children, a dog, and a deaf cat.