COME IN FROM THE COLD

Wartime love and murder throw a long shadow.

Annie Devereux, humiliated and bruised by her divorce, retreats to David Mackenzie’s cottage in the Scottish Highlands to research the mysterious wartime history of her grandfather, serving on the Arctic convoys supplying Russia in World War 2.

In 1942 John Elliott comes off convoy a sick man and is billeted on nineteen-year-old Mhairi to recuperate. But Mhairi’s relationship with a dangerous and manipulative black marketeer brings trouble and death. Fingers of fear and uncertainty reach into the future.

David, grieving his dead wife and seemingly unable to move on with either life or relationships, is intrigued by Annie’s discovery of a connection between his grandmother and Annie’s grandfather. As Annie and David begin to peel away the hidden memories of ninety-year-old Mhairi, dark secrets surface – a doomed wartime love and a death which still affects the living.

Soon Annie has a secret of her own but concealing it was the worst decision she ever made. Both Annie and David must find a path to healing and reconciliation before they can come in from the cold.  

1942 to 1946. 2011 to 2014.

Number of words 117,000

Number of pages 416

Number of chapters 58

SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Road to Russia:  Arctic Convoys 1942-45:                       Bernard Edwards

My Sea Lady: an epic account of the Arctic convoys               Graeme Ogden

Through Ice and Fire:  a Russian Arctic Convoy diary 1942    Leona J. Thomas

Loch Ewe during World War 2                                                  Steve Chadwick

Most of the place names in Wester Ross are actual, but I have tended to simplify locations i.e. I have written Cove where locals would expect Rubha nan Sasan, or Gairloch where they would know it is Strath I mean! This is in the interests of those who do not know the area and might become confused by too many place names. The school references are also fictitious and comments about it from book characters serve only the plot. I have also taken licence with the actual location of the Indian camp near Inverasdale, and some of the military checkpoints, again for plot purposes. The convoy dates are correct, but it is unlikely that Lt. John Elliott would have been in the same ship for so many convoys, so please forgive this ‘bending’ of naval postings.

https://richarddeescifi.co.uk/the-indie-showcase-presents-charlotte-milne/

suzanneadair.net/2019/03/26/game-of-allies-wwii-arctic-convoys-to-russia/