Summer, 1937. Frederick Rowlands' peaceful holiday in Cornwall is derailed when a film star is found dead in his hotel. The suspicious nature of Dolores La Mar's death points to murder and Rowlands soon finds himself caught up in the police investigation.

When his old flame, Secret Service agent Iris Barnes arrives, it transpires that the killing has links to the political turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. Rowlands and Barnes begin to follow a treacherous trail of Republican revolutionaries which leads them to the dark streets of Barcelona, where they discover that their Cornish murder is more connected to the city than either of them realised. As Europe inches closer towards international conflict, will Rowlands and Barnes make it out of Spain alive?

First published as Twist of Fate under A. C. Koning.