Martin’s Eyes

Austria, 1946. In a remote hunting lodge hidden deep in the forests of a shattered Europe, two men face each other across a kitchen table. One is a fugitive Nazi. The other has come to bring him to justice. Between them lies a gun — and the ghosts of a war that refuses to die.

As captor and captive trade stories, truth and deceit entwine. Their recollections span a continent in flames: from the Blitz that tore through a British city to the brutal siege of Monte Cassino; from the frozen hell of the Eastern Front to the chaos of a death march. Loyalties and lives were tested to breaking point.

Across this epic story there is much that is not as it seems. As the day draws on, hidden identities, a forbidden love and long-buried betrayals surface — until some players in this tense drama must reckon with not only their foe, but also themselves.

By the time evening approaches and the world slides into the shadow of the Cold War, one question remains: in a landscape where so many souls are stained by conflict, is anyone entirely guilt free?

Martin’s Eyes is an enthralling historical thriller of conscience and survival — where the line between hero and villain is sometimes blurred by the ashes of war.

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ISBN: 9781917837408 (hardback)

• ‘Powerful and gripping – move over Len Deighton!’ Robert Lyman, historian
• ‘This is an ambitious and atmospheric novel of wartime intrigue and adventure. Although it spans many theatres of war – and numerous gritty war stories – it hinges on a small number of characters you come to care about, and who consistently surprise right up to the final pages’ Phil Craig, author of 1945 The Reckoning
• ‘An unforgettable saga of converging destiny of captive and captor, set in the ruins of vengeance-torn Europe at war’s end’ Julian Stockwin, novelist, best-selling author of the Kydd series and other books
• ‘Iain Ballantyne has written a gripping novel of love, betrayal and espionage spanning the years of the Second World. Martin’s Eyes is John Le Carre meets Alistair MacLean.’ Gavin Mortimer, author of Stirling’s Men & The Phoney Major
• ‘An impressive and highly ambitious debut. The detail is superb, the characters are compelling and the action is relentless.’ Alexander Norman, author of Captain de Havilland’s Moth
• ‘Martin’s Eyes is a terrifically gripping WW2 novel. Beautifully written and wonderfully atmospheric it tells a compelling tale of wartime life in all its aspects. Masterly!’ Mark Ellis, author of the award-winning Frank Merlin’WW2 London detective series.
• ‘Written with the flourish of a storyteller and the eye for detail and accuracy of a historian, Martin’s Eyes is an engrossing thriller, a searing blend of war, crime, psychology and history.
  ‘Iain Ballantyne perfectly captures the mood, chaos and ambiguity of the immediate post-war period on the Continent, taking the reader into a dark – and often forgotten – world where the line between justice for victims of Nazi crimes and revenge are frequently blurred.’ Richard Hargreaves, author of Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June – July 1941.