A gruesome wave of murder--suicides is sweeping England, leaving the police baffled. But General Kirk of British Intelligence thinks the deaths may be connected to the one case he never solved, the one that's nagged at him for years: John Glyde, a traitor who vanished in the ruins of the Third Reich. With the help of his colleagues Mike Howard and Penny Wise, Kirk tries to get to the bottom of the weird happenings, but the truth is far more terrible and bizarre than he could ever imagine.

The second novel by the prolific British thriller and horror writer John Blackburn (1923-1993), A Sour Apple Tree (1958) is a fast-paced Cold War-era thriller which, like all Blackburn's works, also incorporates a blend of horror and science fiction and will keep readers guessing and turning the pages until the startling conclusion.