Until the moment he received a frantic call from his father, Daniel believed his parents were headed into a peaceful, well-deserved retirement. They had sold their home and business in London, and said "farewell to England" with a cheerful party where all their friends had gathered to wish them well on their great adventure: setting off to begin life anew on a remote, bucolic farm in rural Sweden.

But with that phone call, everything changes. Your mother's not well, his father tells him. She's been imagining things--terrible, terrible things. She's had a psychotic breakdown, and has been committed to a mental hospital.

Daniel prepares to rush to Sweden, on the first available flight the next day. Before he can board the plane, his father contacts him again with even more frightening news: his mother has been released from the hospital, and he doesn't know where she is.

Then, he hears from his mother:

I'm sure your father has spoken to you. Everything that man has told you is a lie. I'm not mad. I don't need a doctor. I need the police. I'm about to board a flight to London. Meet me at Heathrow.

Caught between his parents, and unsure of who to believe or trust, Daniel becomes his mother's unwilling judge and jury as she tells him an urgent tale of secrets, of lies, of a horrible crime and a conspiracy that implicates his own father.

（英）汤姆·罗伯·史密斯（Tom Rob Smith）

在伦敦出生和长大，父亲是英国人，母亲是瑞典人。就读于剑桥大学圣约翰学院。

2008年，他推出第一部小说《第44个孩子》，这本书旋即横扫了全球17项纯文学与大众文学奖，创下惊疑小说的新人处女作即受肯定的例子。他随即在翌年推出《第44个孩子》的二部曲《古拉格57》及于2011年推出三部曲《宾州大道935》。