A Jewel in the Crown

by Lewis

Overview

James Bond meets Maisie Dobbs in this riveting new historical caper series featuring a gifted young socialist-turned-counterespionage spy on a World War II mission orchestrated by Winston Churchill himself…

1940: Weeks after the evacuation of Dunkirk, Germany is poised to invade a near-defenseless Britain. To safeguard the Crown Jewels from the Nazis, Winston Churchill devises a daring gamble to have them shipped overseas. The priceless artifacts will be secretly removed from the Tower of London and driven north to Scotland by two operatives posing as a young married couple, to be taken from there to Canada.

Caitrin Colline—a Welsh coalminer’s daughter and an ardent socialist—will play the wife of Lord Marlton, Hector Neville-Percy. A less likely couple is at first difficult to imagine. Yet Caitrin’s bold, streetwise confidence and sharp wits complement Hector’s social ease and connections, essential to a second part of their mission: uncovering Nazi sympathizers within the highest ranks of Britain’s aristocracy.

Battling enemies within and without, Caitrin wonders if anyone in their circle can be trusted—even her partner. And when unexpected events catapult her into a life-or-death chase across the continent, the morale of a nation and the fate of Europe itself in the balance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496749093
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	07/23/2024
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.79(w) x 8.64(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Lewis was born in Wales and moved to Hollywood to become a director of photography. He has shot everything from movies to commercials and music videos, specializing in comedies. For many years, David worked in and traveled around Scotland. He now lives in southern California with Hank, the noisiest cat in the world.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for A Jewel in the Crown

“David Lewis sizzles in this top-notch historical thriller. Impeccable research and a fast-paced storyline makes this a page turner you won’t want to put down. Enjoy the twists and turns as Caitrin Colline battles enemies known and unknown. I can’t wait to read more from Lewis.” —James D. Shipman, author of Before the Storm

“An exciting, page-turning spy adventure. Meticulously-researched and told in a cinematic-style, Lewis’s novel takes the reader on a colorful, intriguing chase across the English countryside, building to an pulse-pounding, action-filled climax. Caitrin Colline is a heroine you can root for: smart, resourceful and unflappable, she’s part Indiana Jones and part Elizabeth Zott. When she’s teamed with handsome aristocrat, Hector Neville-Percy, it’s the perfect pairing of opposites. Sparks fly and classes clash amid the ever-increasing danger. With his debut, David Lewis delivers first class suspense-filled entertainment.” —Kevin O’Brien, New York Times bestselling author of The Enemy at Home

“Brilliantly researched, David Lewis’s A Jewel in the Crown is a thrilling tale of spies and dark secrets. It’s a captivating caper that kept me turning the pages long into the night.” —Alan Hlad, internationally bestselling author of The Long Flight Home and Churchill’s Secret Messenger

From the Publisher

2024-05-04
The Blitz is on, and Britain must protect its precious symbol.

With his nation in peril in 1939, Winston Churchill concocts a scheme to protect the crown jewels: transport them to a submarine that will whisk them off to the safety of Canada. He recruits Hector, Lord Neville-Percy of Marlton, and police constable Caitrin Colline, a “Welsh firebrand, antiroyalist, and future destroyer of England’s aristocracy,” to act as a squabbling married couple driving a hay wagon. While this may not have been one of Winnie’s better ideas, he certainly finds two people with clashing backgrounds and personalities. (In reality, the jewels were buried on British soil.) The book is an oddity for a World War II novel. It’s funny and filled with witty dialogue, coming mostly from Caitrin. To each other, they are Hecky and Catty. When anyone asks what they’re carrying in the hay wagon, she answers the crown jewels, correctly expecting not to be believed. Some people they meet are not even convinced that they’re married. And they must deal with Die Brücke—The Bridge—whose members wish the English could just get along with Hitler. Violence is a long time coming in this novel, and for a while the humor carries more weight than the plot. But sometimes the interchanges cross into plain silliness: “‘…a horse box full of hay bales that no one is allowed to see. Tip-top secret, no?’ ‘Yes,’ Caitrin [replies.] ‘The hushest of all hushedy-hushes.’” The exchanges between Hector and Caitrin show off many of the class differences between them. Caitrin would just as soon expropriate all the aristocrats’ property and tell them to go get jobs like everybody else. Hector is defensive about his class, saying hey, don’t blame me for the circumstances I was born into. Eventually there is bloodletting—this is war—and Caitrin acquits herself as a woman you wouldn’t care to mess with. Meanwhile, they remain well aware of the scourge of the Nazi bombers pummeling England. So the big question is whether they will make it to the submarine or end up somewhere they’d never imagine.

Good for smiles and chuckles until war becomes more real.

Kirkus Reviews