Crooked Heart : A Novel

Paper Moon meets the Blitz in this original black comedy, set in World War II England, chronicling an unlikely alliance between a small time con artist and a young orphan evacuee.

When Noel Bostockaged ten, no familyis evacuated from London to escape the Nazi bombardment, he lands in a suburb northwest of the city with Vera Sedgea thirty-six-year old widow drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, shes unscrupulous about how she gets it.

Noels mourning his godmother Mattie, a former suffragette. Wise beyond his years, raised with a disdain for authority and an eclectic attitude toward education, he has little in common with other children and even less with the impulsive Vee, who hurtles from one self-made crisis to the next. The wars provided unprecedented opportunities for making money, but what Vee needsand what shes never hadis a cool head and the ability to make a plan.

On her own, shes a disaster. With Noel, shes a team.

Together, they cook up a scheme. Crisscrossing the bombed suburbs of London, Vee starts to make a profit and Noel begins to regain his interest in life. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the warand some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isnt actually safe at all. . . .