***WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS'' ASSOCIATION ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION***
''Meticulous and gripping - a thriller that disturbs for revelations about a singular act of murder, and the national security state which we call home'' Philippe Sands, author of East West Street
A groundbreaking examination of a terrifying murder and its aftermath by the bestselling author of Hanns and Rudolf and The House by the Lake.
On 14 June 2006, police were called to 9 Downshire Hill in Hampstead. The owner, Allan Chappelow, was a writer and notorious recluse who had not been seen for several weeks. Inside the darkened house, officers found piles of rubbish, trees growing through the floor, and the body of Chappelow, battered to death, partially burned and buried under four feet of paper.
The man eventually arrested on suspicion of his murder was a Chinese dissident named Wang Yam, who claimed to be the g
