The French Gift Kirsty Manning, by Allen & Unwin

Inspired by the real-life French resistance fighter Agnes Humbert. Betrayed, she was sentenced to five years hard labour. We begin on the Côte d’Azur at the Villa Sanary Bastille Day ball, the hostess staging a “faux murder” which goes wrong – an American heiress is murdered – landing naive but sturdy maid Margot in prison. Her cellmate is crime noir writer Josephine Murant. Present day and bookseller Evie is the widow of Murant’s great nephew. When she’s asked permission for an unpublished manuscript of Murant’s to be exhibited, she uncovers “devastation, cruelty and hope in the same fleeting moment”. Kirsty Manning spins an elegant web across two eras. “Margot is no killer,” says Josephine, “The little bird doesn’t have it in her.” After more than 70 years, what happened and why The French Gift was never published shall be revealed. It was rejected: “Too severe for readers of the fairer sex.”