A Black East Wind by Jack Granfers

The first in a series of Webber-Ridd cold case investigations, set on the North Devon Coast. A historical thriller set in the months before D-Day and a mystery unresolved for thirty years.

​September 1943: Ten thousand American GIs descend on the North Devon Coast to prepare for the D-Day landings, risking their lives by day, drinking and dancing by night. Hundreds die in the perilous amphibious exercises on the local beaches and Atlantic surf. As the training intensifies, tensions rise between local residents and the Americans. A bitter rivalry develops between one GI and a British soldier over a local girl. During the one and only joint exercise between British and American troops, just days before their departure for Normandy, that same GI is reported missing. His body is never found.

​Three decades later, at the behest of her dying father, an investigative journalist, Amy Ridd, niece of the missing GI, arrives in Devon from Boston to discover the truth behind her uncle’s disappearance. She retains Nick Webber, a former golf pro turned private investigator to help her solve a case colder than a New England day in January. Their investigation uncovers a tragic love story and wartime secrets buried for three decades.