A DOUBLE LIFE
Charlotte Philby
The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
HarperCollinsPublishers
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Dublin 4, Ireland
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2020
Copyright © Charlotte Philby 2020
Maura Dooley, Mirror, from Sound Barrier: Poems 1982-2002 (Bloodaxe Books, 2002). Reproduced with permission of Bloodaxe Books.
Charlotte Philby asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008365219
Ebook Edition © 2020 ISBN: 9780008365196
Version: 2021-02-25
‘Superbly crafted with heart-stopping twists and chills galore. A new star has arrived in the thriller firmament’
Thriller of the Year, THE TIMES
‘A seriously stylish, hugely compelling mystery: Charlotte Philby redefines a male-dominated genre with her brilliantly complex female characters. I was utterly gripped’
LUCY FOLEY
‘I fell into the vivid, frightening world Charlotte Philby creates so skilfully and didn’t resurface until long after I’d turned the last page. Her characters are so real you genuinely fret over their safety in their jobs and personal lives. Everything about this book feels as plausible as if it might happen tomorrow. She is a hugely original and talented writer’
JANE CASEY
‘A Double Life confirms Charlotte Philby as the master of a sub-genre she basically invented, dealing in the dangerous area where working motherhood and international espionage collide. Heart-breaking, gripping and always beautifully written, I can’t wait to see what she does next’
ERIN KELLY
‘Brilliantly executed and tense’
SUNDAY TIMES
‘Terribly compelling … persuasive and absorbing’
OBSERVER
‘Philby is creating her own niche of beautifully observed, fast-paced, multi-layered novels … In Gabriela and Isobel, Philby develops two fascinating characters who have to face challenges that women the world over will recognise, but rarely get to read about on the page. A Double Life is a wonderful novel’
HOLLY WATT
‘A pacy, gripping read that kept us on the edge of our seats’
INDEPENDENT
‘I like a novel where the intrepid investigative journalist and the Foreign Office rising star are both women. And where two separate stories eventually converge around a conspiracy that touches the very top of the establishment and destroys everything’
EVENING STANDARD
‘Dark and compelling’
BELLA
‘As innovative a spy novel as we might expect from the granddaughter of Kim Philby … A gripping account of two complex lives’
IRISH TIMES
For Jesse
‘The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men’
Henry David Thoreau
Mirror
In my mother’s house
is the friendly mirror,
the only glass in which I look
and think I see myself,
think, yes, that’s what
I think I’m like,
that’s who I am. The only
glass in which I look and smile.
Just as this baby smiles
at the baby who always
smiles at her, the one in
her mother’s arms, the mother
who looks like me, who
smiles at herself in her
mother’s mirror, the friendly
mirror in her mother’s house.
But if I move to one side
we vanish, the woman I thought
was me, the baby making friends
with herself, we move to one side
and the mirror holds no future, no past,
in its liquid frame, only the corner
of an open window, a bee visiting
the