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About The Book

In a place where everyone is keeping secrets all the time, how do you know who you can trust? A brilliant novel of lies and intrigue at Bletchley Park by the author of the bestselling debut The Hourglass Factory. Perfect for all fans of The Imitation Game.
On a delayed train, deep in the English countryside, two strangers meet. It is 1942 and they are both men of fighting age, though neither is in uniform. As strangers do in these days of war, they pass the time by sharing their stories. But walls have ears and careless talk costs lives…
At Bletchley Park, Honey Deschamps spends her days at a type-x machine in Hut 6, transcribing decrypted signals from the German Army. One winter’s night, as she walks home in the blackout, she meets a stranger in the shadows. He tells her his name is Felix, and he has a package for her.
The parcel, containing a small piece of amber, postmarked from Russia and branded with two censor’s stamps, is just the first of several. Someone is trying to get a message to her, but who? As a dangerous web weaves ever tighter around her, can Honey uncover who is sending these mysterious packages and why before it’s too late…?

About The Author

Lucy Ribchester was born in Edinburgh in 1982. She studied English at the University of St Andrews and Shakespearean Studies at Kings College London. In 2013 she received a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award for the opening chapters of The Hourglass Factory. Her short fiction has been published in journals in the UK and US, and she writes about dance and circus for several magazines and websites including The List, Fest and Dance Tabs. The Hourglass Factory is her first novel.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (May 1, 2016)
  • Length: 464 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781471139284

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Raves and Reviews

‘Rollicking whodunit adventure…terrific’

– Ian Rankin on The Hourglass Factory

‘Its energy, crackle and humour is infectious'

– ELIZABETH BUCHAN on The Hourglass Factory, DAILY MAIL

‘Page-turning commercial historical fiction...a serious one to watch’

– VIV GROSKOP on The Hourglass Factory, RED MAGAZINE

‘Its fast-paced plot fizzes with intrigue… this story is too good to miss. With a motley crew of characters and a helping of period detail, it is a fantastically fun page-turner that pulses with all the energy of London streets’

– THE LADY on The Hourglass Factory

‘Unexpected plot twists, glamorous underworlds…a really mesmerising piece of historical fiction’

– HELLO! MAGAZINE on The Hourglass Factory

‘Set in London two years before the start of The Great War, it’s a world where newspapers are produced in smoke-filled rooms up rickety stairs’

– SUNDAY POST on The Hourglass Factory

‘An entertaining romp’

– THE LIST on The Hourglass Factory

A sexy fast-paced historical murder mystery…a thrilling combination of corsets, Emmeline Pankhurst and female journalists…’

– THE HERALD on The Hourglass Factory

‘This whodunit teems with larger-than-life characters…Yet this is also, in part, a historical novel, with landmark events (often not seen as being contemporaneous to one another)…all breathing life into Ribchester’s London’

– GUARDIAN on The Hourglass Factory

‘A tale of murder, subversion, class and the fight for equality…A most enjoyable read’

– NAOMI FRISBY on The Hourglass Factory, THE WRITES OF WOMAN

‘A glorious tome encapsulating the London of 1912 set amidst suffragettes and circuses’

– THE MITFORD SOCIETY on The Hourglass Factory

‘A fascinating historical mystery from a talented new author…fascinating historical detail and brilliant description’

– WE LOVE THIS BOOK on The Hourglass Factory

‘Lucy Ribchester’s The Amber Shadows is a spooky and complex psychological thriller set in Bletchley Park during the second world war. Atmospheric and engaging’

– Ian Rankin on The Amber Shadows

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