The Midnight Network
The next novel from Maia Caron — published August 10, 2027 from Doubleday Canada.
A sweeping, haunting story of an all-female postwar spy network, two women’s search for a missing friend, a sisterhood of witches whose ancestors were hunted by the Inquisition, and the medieval castle high in the Austrian Alps that ties them together, decades apart. By the author of The Last Secret, an instant national bestseller.
October 1945
Six months after the war has ended, Lara Rausche is a diligent Austrian maid, serving the guests of Hochfelsen, pouring vintage wine, cleaning the grand rooms of the fortress, and dodging advances from SS officers on the run. But Lara is really a spy, and member of a small French resistance cell of brave women hellbent on exposing the war crimes of the SS and their sympathizers. At Hochfelsen, Lara watches and hears all, silently moving through the hallways of the castle, but if she’s discovered eavesdropping on conversations and trying to discover these mysterious criminals’ real identities, she won’t make it out alive.
Late one night, before Lara is set to leave the castle, two more weary fugitives arrive at the door, carrying a heavy locked box between them. But talk of the secret items within capture Lara’s attention—as does one of the men who’s brought it with him. . .
August 1983
When Diana Smith, a London antiques dealer, is invited to Hochfelsen for her best friend Steffi von Baer’s birthday, her excitement turns to shock when she realizes that she and Kit Cavanaugh—Steffi’s other best friend, and the brash opposite of Diana—aren’t there for a happy party, but rather a somber pagan funeral for Steffi that her eccentric, odd family insist upon . . . despite the fact that her body hasn’t been found.
Diana and Kit quickly discover that all is not what it seems at Hochfelsen or within the von Baer family. When their hosts strand the two women at the castle, accusing them of having something to do with Steffi’s fate, Diana and Kit must solve the mystery of their friend’s disappearance before it’s too late.
With propulsive storytelling and twists that will capture your imagination, The Midnight Network is a timeless story of sisterhood, love, and the power that lives within every woman.