The Book
The French Vendetta by author Simon Michael
The war may be over – but in Bézérac, it never truly ended.
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.
Drawn into a simmering vendetta between those who collaborated with the Nazis and those who resisted, Charles has no choice but to defend a client in a place with no judge, no rules, and no law.
With a firing squad awaiting the verdict, his client's life is on the line.
The author
Simon Michael often referred to as “the British John Grisham”, is a barrister and the author of the best-selling Charles Holborne Legal Thrillers.
The books are historical and legal crime novels set primarily in London in the 1960s and 1970s, a period of profound social change. At their centre is barrister Charles Holborne, born Charlie Horowitz, a former East End heavyweight boxer and occasional criminal, who is drawn into cases at the intersection of organised crime, police corruption and political intrigue.
Blending legal authenticity with gritty urban realism, Simon Michael uses crime to explore loyalty, prejudice and moral compromise: what happens when justice collides with a corrupt Establishment? Who does the law truly serve, and who pays the cost of pursuing truth when the system itself is broken?
Publication date: 15th May 2026 ISBN: (PB) 9780854958825 (Amazon)
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