Book excerpt: Love of country and love for a beautiful woman collide in this gripping World War II story inspired by real events In the fall of 1938, a British executive is stabbed to death in an alley off Unter den Linden, Berlin’s most famous boulevard. Missing from the crime scene and from Ronald Draper’s hotel room are the papers of “utmost importance” that he claimed to be bringing home to England. Inspector Cameron Ross of the Metropolitan Police is sent over to assist in the murder investigation, but his real mission—as outlined by his father, Colonel Ross of the Secret Intelligence Service—is to find out what was in those documents. Ross’s inquiries go nowhere until he meets Ulrike Walter, a beautiful young violinist who knows more than she should. Ulrike may be engaged to a member of the Hitler Youth, but she and the British inspector have a chemistry that cannot be denied. A year later, war is declared and Ulrike flees Germany for England, where she is immediately jailed as an enemy alien. Her only chance for freedom is Cameron Ross, a man torn between his commitment to family and country and his feelings for a woman he hardly knows. Night Crossing is the 3rd book in the Secret War Trilogy, which also includes Early One Morning and Blue Noon.