When London barrister Charles Holborne travels to rural France in 1970, he is hoping for a quiet escape. Instead, he finds a village still ruled by old loyalties, buried secrets, and unresolved guilt. A woman has disappeared. Accusations resurface. And the past, shaped by fear and silence during the Nazi occupation, begins to intrude on the present.

As Holborne is drawn deeper into a case the village believes it has already judged, he discovers that justice here is fragile – and truth can be more dangerous than lies.

Moving between wartime France and the uneasy peace decades later, The French Vendetta explores how communities rewrite history to survive, and what happens when moral compromise is mistaken for justice.

A gripping historical crime novel about memory, prejudice, and the long shadow of war.

This is book 11 in the prize-winning historical legal crime thriller by Simon Michael, but it can be read as a standalone.