Who Was Nightshade?
Hertfordshire, 1963 — Teenage love - Cold War.
In the quiet Hertfordshire village of Fordham Market, summer arrives with sunshine, village fêtes and the lingering privileges of old families. But beneath the calm surface, secrets are gathering.
When civil servant Tony Smallwood arrives at The Priory, ostensibly to help his old university friend settle a troublesome inheritance, his interest in Wyvern Hall soon proves more complicated than country-house business. At the heart of the estate lies a mysterious machine, a missing dossier and a trail of wartime connections that reaches into the shadowy world of Cold War espionage.
Meanwhile, teenagers Peter and Terri find themselves drawn into a dangerous investigation of their own. Alongside the eccentric Nippy, formidable Flo Hodges, enigmatic Agatha Ponsonby and a cast of sharply observed village characters, they begin to question whom they can trust—and what may be hidden behind the respectable faces of Fordham Market.
Blending understated wit, evocative English countryside, period detail and an atmosphere of growing unease, Who Was Nightshade? is a character-driven mystery about loyalty, deception, buried history and the peril of seeking certainty in a world built on secrets.
Everyone in Fordham seems to have a story. But whose story can be believed?