Böcker av David Tetlow

Beginning in 1910, this story follows two brothers, Michael, a baby, and Ronald, a seven-year-old, who suddenly lose both parents. Their mother dies in childbirth, and their father perishes in the worst coal mining disaster in Lancashire's history: the Pretoria Pit explosion at Hulton Colliery near Westhoughton, Bolton, which claimed 344 lives. Taken to a local orphanage, the baby is fostered by a local mill owner and his wife. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the mill owner's intentions are far from benevolent; he wants a compliant son to fulfill his wishes. Meanwhile, the traumatized and unruly Ronald is deemed too difficult to adopt and is sent to Australia under Britain's Child Migrant Program, where he initially suffers much abuse. Despite their harsh beginnings, both brothers eventually join the medical profession. During World War II, they encounter each other several times while working in field hospitals, completely unaware of their true relationship. Is it possible that they will one day discover the bonds of brotherhood and reunite?

In the latter part of 1939, German leader Adolf Hitler made a pact with the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to invade Poland. Confident that British and French leaders would opt for a weak peace settlement, Hitler's army stormed in from the north, south and west on September 1st, while Stalin's Red Army invaded from the east on September 17th. This story, part fact and part fiction, is an account of the suffering endured by the Polish people at this time, many of whom were imprisoned in Siberia and forced to work under dreadful conditions. Yet when Hitler turned on Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Poland's exiled found common cause with their Russian captors to take up arms against Nazi oppression. Though the Allies emerged victorious in 1945, a heavy price was exacted from occupied Poland. Many survivors discovered they no longer had homeland to which they could return, their former communities now under firm Soviet control.

Josh Delany had, in a previous life, been a Special Forces officer for many years, leaving the army after being seriously injured, indeed almost killed whist abroad on active duty, saving the lives of others, and forcing him to leave the army he loved.As a civilian, after witnessing very impressive police work by a friend, who brought the killer of his mother-in-law to justice, (described in the author's previous book Delany's Progess) he decided that his own future lay within that sphere.Because of his previous experience he was a master of intrigue and disguise, having the ability to infiltrate gangs of serious criminals, become an excepted member of those groups and work with them until eventually when the time was right bringing them crashing down. As time went on, he eventually had a very good relationship, indeed friendship with a lifetime small crook and old lag, Deuteronomy Golightly, who assisted him greatly on many occasions, sometimes in quite humorous circumstances. He is also a dedicated family man, loving his wife Wendy and his two daughters. This book leads into the start of the author's book Beware My Shadow, when Wendy and one of his daughters met brutal deaths. Had the killers been aware of the capabilities of Josh Delany, it is certain that they would have been much more careful.