Deborah Lawrenson’s best-selling novel transports readers to a sunny Portuguese town with a shadowy past—where two women, decades apart, are drawn into a dark game of truth and lies that still haunts the shifting sea marshes.
‘A pulsepounder … had me turning the pages with anticipation and dread...’
Travelling to Faro, Portugal, journalist Joanna Millard hopes to escape an unsatisfying relationship and a stalled career. Faro is an enchanting town, and the seaside views are enhanced by the company of Nathan Emberlin, a charismatic younger man. But behind the crumbling facades of Moorish buildings, Joanna soon realizes, Faro has a seedy underbelly, its economy compromised by corruption and wartime spoils. And Nathan has an ulterior motive for seeking her company: he is determined to discover the truth involving a child’s kidnapping that may have taken place on this dramatic coastline over two decades ago.
Joanna’s subsequent search leads her to Ian Rylands, an English expat who cryptically insists she will find answers in The Alliance, a novel written by American Esta Hartford. The book recounts an American couple’s experience in Portugal during World War II, and their entanglements both personal and professional with their German enemies. Only Rylands insists the book isn’t fiction, and as Joanna reads deeper into it, she begins to suspect that Esta Hartford’s story and Nathan Emberlin’s may indeed converge in Faro—where the past not only casts a long shadow but still exerts a very present danger.
Selected for National Reading Group Month Great Group Reads in the US
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT 300 Days of Sun
'A deeply satisfying novel, a rich story with a strong feeling for time and place and the expert pacing of the best thrillers.' Carol Gladstein, Booklist Starred Review
'Merges past and present, doubling identities and events to dazzling (and sometimes dizzying) effect. Set against the lush but corrupt coastal resorts of southern Portugal, the novel’s shadowy deeds seem only more dangerous in this sunny clime.' Ron Terpening, Library Journal
‘A pulsepounder … had me turning the pages with anticipation and dread to learn the secrets of seaside town Faro, Portugal.’ Kahakai Kitchen
'Captivating characters, vivid settings, and an enticing plot … a fascinating novel that is difficult to put down.’ Nina Longfield, luxuryreading.com
‘I couldn't wait to get back to it ... it lingered long after finishing.’ Nomoregrumpybookseller.blogspot.co.uk
‘An excellent summer read … romance, mystery, espionage, and a thriller aspect that make it quite a page-turner.’ aboutabookreviews.com
‘A pulsepounder … had me turning the pages with anticipation and dread...’
Travelling to Faro, Portugal, journalist Joanna Millard hopes to escape an unsatisfying relationship and a stalled career. Faro is an enchanting town, and the seaside views are enhanced by the company of Nathan Emberlin, a charismatic younger man. But behind the crumbling facades of Moorish buildings, Joanna soon realizes, Faro has a seedy underbelly, its economy compromised by corruption and wartime spoils. And Nathan has an ulterior motive for seeking her company: he is determined to discover the truth involving a child’s kidnapping that may have taken place on this dramatic coastline over two decades ago.
Joanna’s subsequent search leads her to Ian Rylands, an English expat who cryptically insists she will find answers in The Alliance, a novel written by American Esta Hartford. The book recounts an American couple’s experience in Portugal during World War II, and their entanglements both personal and professional with their German enemies. Only Rylands insists the book isn’t fiction, and as Joanna reads deeper into it, she begins to suspect that Esta Hartford’s story and Nathan Emberlin’s may indeed converge in Faro—where the past not only casts a long shadow but still exerts a very present danger.
Selected for National Reading Group Month Great Group Reads in the US
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT 300 Days of Sun
'A deeply satisfying novel, a rich story with a strong feeling for time and place and the expert pacing of the best thrillers.' Carol Gladstein, Booklist Starred Review
'Merges past and present, doubling identities and events to dazzling (and sometimes dizzying) effect. Set against the lush but corrupt coastal resorts of southern Portugal, the novel’s shadowy deeds seem only more dangerous in this sunny clime.' Ron Terpening, Library Journal
‘A pulsepounder … had me turning the pages with anticipation and dread to learn the secrets of seaside town Faro, Portugal.’ Kahakai Kitchen
'Captivating characters, vivid settings, and an enticing plot … a fascinating novel that is difficult to put down.’ Nina Longfield, luxuryreading.com
‘I couldn't wait to get back to it ... it lingered long after finishing.’ Nomoregrumpybookseller.blogspot.co.uk
‘An excellent summer read … romance, mystery, espionage, and a thriller aspect that make it quite a page-turner.’ aboutabookreviews.com
