It’s 1948, and the Blitz has left London in ruins. Lawrie arrives with the Windrush, a jazz musician ready to help England rebuild itself, only to find his welcome is less than sincere.

A postman by day, Lawrie tours Soho’s music halls by night. He falls in love with the girl next door and struggles to find his place in a broken city. But London isn’t ready. Caught in a strange period between victory and mourning, the city punishes Lawrie and his friends, ostracising them and setting them apart. So, when Lawrie discovers the baby, dead and abandoned on the black side of town, it comes as little surprise that he is made chief suspect.

Louise Hare’s compelling debut is a slow-moving murder-mystery and a fractured love story, tenderly shedding light on an over-looked moment in history, when racism and discrimination forced ordinary people to take unthinkable measures for acceptance.