A Place of Safety [Hardcover]

Natasha Cooper's doughty heroine Trish Maguire is back, and readers are in for a highly entertaining time. Cooper creates another gritty, authentic London setting while concurrently portraying the horrors of the First World War. Trish Maguire plans to spend some free time with her family, but Sir Henry Buxford, an influential acquaintance, asks her to investigate one of his private charities, a magnificent art collection built up before 1914 and lost for most of the 20th century. Giving herself a crash course in the murkier end of the art market, and learning more than she can bear about the suffering in the trenches during the First World War, Trish soon finds the job invading her professional and private lives. Cooper is one of the most reliable practitioners of the genre at work today, and this is splendid stuff.

The exciting new novel in the Trish Magiure series - can Trish find out what goes on in the murky depths of the art world and save her family at the same time? Trish Maguire is blessed with a slug of unexpected free time when a big case settles before it gets to court. She plans to spend it with her family. Sir Henry Buxford, an influential acquaintance, has other ideas. He asks her to investigate one of his private charities, a magnificent art collection built up before 1914 and lost for most of the twentieth century. The work is right outside Trish's usual field, and she needs all the time she can get to help her 9-year-old half-brother adjust to life after his mother's murder. Only Buxford's passionate desire to protect the vulnerable people involved in the Gregory Bequest Collection persuades her to take on the job. Giving herself a crash course in the murkier end of the art market and learning more than she can bear about the suffering in the trenches during the First World War, Trish soon finds herself sharing all his concern. As the small job grows to monster proportions, invading her professional and private lives, it brings about a death she knows she will never forget.

An ex-publisher, past Chair of the Crime Writers' Association, and lifelong Londoner, Natasha Cooper writes for a variety of newspapers and journals, including Crime Time and The Times Literary Supplement. She contributes to many radio programmes such as Woman's Hour and Saturday Review, and regularly speaks at crime-writing conferences on both sides of the Atlantic. She is the author of, among many others, FAULT LINES, PREY TO ALL and OUT OF THE DARK. In 2002 she was shortlisted for the Dagger in the Library, an award that 'goes to the author whose work has given most pleasure to readers'.