The time is 1989, year of tremendous upheaval throughout the Communist world—and a time of uncanny calm for Poppy Tasker, a young “gran” looking after her grandson at a London play center. Divorced, dreaming of fantasy lovers, and feeling like an outsider, she wonders what—if anything—the future holds. Then, silhouetted under the trees of the playground a man appears...staring intensely at her own adored Toby. Suddenly, Poppy’s life becomes perhaps a little too interesting: a corpse is found grotesquely garnished near the playground, strangers watch her apartment and make ominous phone calls, police inspectors question her, and the political turmoil of her time reaches into her life in the form of a very intriguing—and possibly dangerous—new man.
Author
Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was a prolific English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories. Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.
