Rennie Airth was born in South Africa and worked as a foreign correspondent for Reuters for many years. River of Darkness was inspired by a scrapbook about his uncle, a soldier killed in World War I.

On a freezing London night in 1944, Rosa Novak is brutally murdered during a blackout. The police suspect she was the victim of a random act of violence and might have dropped the case if former police investigator John Madden hadn’t been the victim’s employer.

Madden’s old colleagues at Scotland Yard are working on it, but their scant clues lead them to Europe, where the ravages of the war halt their inquiries. Madden feels he owes it to Rosa to find her killer and pushes the investigation until he stumbles upon the dead girl’s connection to a murdered Parisian furrier, a member of the Resistance, and a stolen cache of diamonds.

With rich psychological insights and vivid historical details, this riveting third novel in the Madden series promises to expand Airth’s readership among discerning fans of crime fiction.