Lucifer's Son

Love is blind at first sight. Jessica liked Guy Moorbek as soon as she met him at one of her father's business parties. He was charming, good-looking, persuasive and so different from most of the men she knew. Therefore, when Jessica's father, a self-made tycoon Joshua Trayle, brought Guy and Jessica together; he thought he had found a good husband for his shy little daughter and was successfully uniting two thriving family businesses. However, on a visit to see Guy's mother at the family's French chateau, Jessica quickly realises that the differences that once made Guy so alluring may in fact be a cover for something all too disturbing. As Jessica investigates, she discovers that her father's hopeful marriage alliance had embroiled her in a frightening situation, the roots of which trace back before she was born, to the horrors of the Nazi occupation of France. Jessica breaks off her engagement, but by then she is too involved to escape so easily. She flees to England, and then to Italy, but even there she is not safe... A departure from Desiree Meyler's earlier novels, focusing on the lasting effects of war; how fear and secrets can change the actions of ordinary people. This is a thrilling post-war romance full of intrigue and deception.Desiree Meyler was born into a Pembrokeshire family in west Wales. Whilst studying at the School of Art, Cambridge, alongside fellow student Ronald Searle in the late 1930s, she decided to change direction and became a prolific short story writer following the outbreak of War. Her first novel, The Quiet Rebel was published in 1970.