**Sunday Times Number One Bestseller**A classic tale of murder and deceit from one of the world’s best storytellers – ‘a masterpiece’ The TimesTrudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home – a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse – but not with John.

On the hottest day of the summer of 1934, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge. By the end of that day, the lives of all three will have been changed for ever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined at its start, and will have become victims of...

The year is 1972, the Cold War is far from over and Serena Frome, in her final year at Cambridge, is being groomed for MI5. Sent on Operation Sweet Tooth – a highly secret undercover mission – she meets Tom Haley, a promising young writer. To answer these questions, Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage – trust no one.