The summer of 1940. In the Somerset village of Caddiscombe in the Mendip Hills, at the height of the Battle of Britain, an unlikely wartime friendship develops between a wealthy local married woman, Rachel Woodville, and a young working class RAF pilot, John Graveling – a friendship that ultimately ends in sexual betrayal, murder and disgrace...
May 1996. In the city of Mumbai, India, the hijacking of an airliner by militant Kashmiri separatists goes disastrously wrong when the plane is stormed by Indian troops and many of the hostages are killed or injured. Among the victims is a young Englishwoman, Claire Basquill, who suffers horrific injuries...
May 2000. Rebuilding her life in the village of Caddiscombe, Claire Basquill leads the opposition to the development of a giant theme park around the village, and attracts the attention of a jaded tabloid journalist, Will Stratton. Stratton quickly realizes that Claire is a survivor of the Mumbai hijacking, but his interest in her soon unearths darker rumours about Claire Basquill and her past too: that she may have been the lover of an infamous Kashmiri rebel, Abdul Aziz, and that she might even have aided and abetted in the hijacking herself...
In Caddiscombe Will is drawn further into the controversy over Claire Basquill as a former girl friend, Charlotte Grimes, does her unprincipled best to persuade the villagers to accept the plans for the theme park. Will hears of the old wartime scandal of Claire’s grandmother, Rachel Woodville, who was suspected of murdering her husband, a scandal whose effects still seem linked in some profound way to the present life of the village, particularly for Will’s spinster aunt, Maisie Ridgewell.
When Maisie dies, Will comes into possession of John Graveling’s diary, which reveals many of these secrets of the past. After Will’s own son and ex-wife are taken hostage in Kashmir, Will has to travel into the mountainous heart of Kashmir to try and obtain their release, a journey that tests his endurance to the limit and leads him ultimately to understand the truth, not only about Claire Basquill, but also about the fate of her grandmother, Rachel Woodville...
May 1996. In the city of Mumbai, India, the hijacking of an airliner by militant Kashmiri separatists goes disastrously wrong when the plane is stormed by Indian troops and many of the hostages are killed or injured. Among the victims is a young Englishwoman, Claire Basquill, who suffers horrific injuries...
May 2000. Rebuilding her life in the village of Caddiscombe, Claire Basquill leads the opposition to the development of a giant theme park around the village, and attracts the attention of a jaded tabloid journalist, Will Stratton. Stratton quickly realizes that Claire is a survivor of the Mumbai hijacking, but his interest in her soon unearths darker rumours about Claire Basquill and her past too: that she may have been the lover of an infamous Kashmiri rebel, Abdul Aziz, and that she might even have aided and abetted in the hijacking herself...
In Caddiscombe Will is drawn further into the controversy over Claire Basquill as a former girl friend, Charlotte Grimes, does her unprincipled best to persuade the villagers to accept the plans for the theme park. Will hears of the old wartime scandal of Claire’s grandmother, Rachel Woodville, who was suspected of murdering her husband, a scandal whose effects still seem linked in some profound way to the present life of the village, particularly for Will’s spinster aunt, Maisie Ridgewell.
When Maisie dies, Will comes into possession of John Graveling’s diary, which reveals many of these secrets of the past. After Will’s own son and ex-wife are taken hostage in Kashmir, Will has to travel into the mountainous heart of Kashmir to try and obtain their release, a journey that tests his endurance to the limit and leads him ultimately to understand the truth, not only about Claire Basquill, but also about the fate of her grandmother, Rachel Woodville...
