The War Photographers

Beaumont (Shadow of Doubt) delivers an intriguing tale of WWII espionage and the last days of the Cold War. In 1943, Mae Webster, a codebreaker at Bletchley Park, meets and falls for Lt. Jack Knight, New Zealand war photographer. After learning Jack’s security clearance is higher than hers, she suspects he’s a spy. They get married the next April, and after Paris is liberated, Jack travels there to take photos, including one that appears to capture a Bletchley colleague passing an envelope to a Soviet agent. Mae never sees Jack again. In a parallel narrative set in fall 1989, Mae tells her granddaughter Rachel Talbot, a London-based photojournalist, that she’s seen a television clip of the Stasi officer she believes was responsible for Jack’s death. The mystery of what happened to Jack in Paris gradually unfolds as Rachel investigates the officer while on assignment in Berlin, covering the imminent fall of the Berlin Wall. Beaumont skillfully links Jack’s and Rachel’s stories as each character’s search for the truth leads them into mortal danger. Readers will be enthralled. (Self-published)