The Sleeper

Ten years have passed since Olga Lubimova married Englishman Henry Trent and left her native Russia. Her marriage is happy and she has two children, so why is she still unable to take her freedom for granted? The answer comes anonymously by telephone the morning after a dinner party given by the fashionable photographer Hugo Stratton, where Olga and Henry witness his mischievous enjoyment of the encounter between his current girlfriend and another young woman who arrives uninvited with an angry boyfriend in pursuit. The cold voice on the telephone interrupts Olga’s uneasy thoughts on the confrontation and plunges her into nightmare. There is no hiding place from those who threaten her children – until Hugo’s lifestyle catches up with him and Olga can run headlong into the custody awaiting his murderer. It seems she has presented the police with an open-and-shut case, but senior officers are bewildered when orders are given for a secret murder hunt, together with particulars of the three young people who went to Hugo’s flat on the night of his party. The hunt finds its quarry; Olga’s hope of asylum seems dashed; but further revelations are in store, to keep Olga – and the reader – on edge.