The Hollow Foundations

In the prosperous coastal enclave of Cape Azure, real estate magnate Julian Croft returns after twenty years of self-imposed exile to build a glittering waterfront development. But when a construction crew unearths a skeleton beneath a condemned cottage, the town's pristine facade begins to crack. The bones belong to a prominent critic of the original waterfront evictions, a man who vanished the night before his family was forcibly removed. As Julian confronts the legacy of his own father's ruthless rise to power, he discovers that the gated community where he spent his childhood was built upon an act of violence that everyone agreed to forget. Simon Sebag Montefiore's signature blend of historical sweep and intimate betrayal pulses through this story of how the peace of a sun-drenched paradise is merely a fragile arrangement upheld by secrets, complicity, and blood debts waiting to be called in.