After Midnight - Tapa dura

In 1964, a young Australian girl, Linda Carr, is trying to track down the wreckage of the Liberator bomber in which her father died when it crashed in North Italy in 1944 during World War Two. She employs the help of Jack Kirby, a British Mosquito fighter pilot who was on operations in the area when her father died. He is now a motorcycle racer competing in the Isle of Man TT, but he is finding it hard to adjust to life during peacetime. He too was shot down during the war and spent some time helping the Italian partisans on the ground so he knows a great deal about Nazi brutality, betrayal, corruption and the settling of scores that was the partisan's life in Italy at the time. He also fell in love with Francesca, one of the partisan leaders, and he is keen to find out what happened to her and renew their affair. However, what they uncover is more dangerous and complex than either Linda or Jack could ever have imagined.

Rob Ryan was born in Liverpool. He has written for The Face, Arena, Conde Nast Traveller, Esquire and the Sunday Times. He is currently Writer at Large for GQ magazine. He lives in North London with his wife and three children.