Skip to content

Charles Searle

Dark Years · Book two

Crossing the Lines

Paris, August 1940. Antoine Martinet faces the Cagoule once again. He’s back undercover—but can he stop them?

Publishing 28 Sept 2026

3D cover of Crossing the Lines by Charles Searle
Cover of Crossing the Lines by Charles Searle

The story

Synopsis

The return of Antoine Martinet, the Hooded Man.

Paris, August 1940. Antoine Martinet thwarted the Cagoule’s attempt to overthrow the French Republic before the war. Now he finds himself facing them once again, as the feared ‘hooded men’ have become arch collaborators, intent on turning France into a satellite of Hitler’s new European Order.

Antoine goes back undercover in his quest to stop them. As he moves between Paris, the Eastern Front and the port city of Marseille, he constantly risks his life, coming up against some of the world’s most ruthless killers in the Gestapo and their allies in the Parisian and Marseille underworlds.

Alongside his patriotic mission, he is driven by a personal quest: to hunt down and assassinate the person responsible for the murder of his lover.

To achieve his goals, Antoine must cross many lines, between the Occupied and Free Zones in war-torn France and between his own conflicting beliefs.

Pre-order Crossing the Lines

  • The Book Guild logo
  • TGJones logo
  • Waterstones logo
  • Amazon logo
  • Blackwell’s logo
  • Foyles logo

Continue the series

Also in the Dark Years trilogy

Cover of The Hooded Man by Charles Searle

Dark Years · Book one

The Hooded Man

Contact

Contact Charles

Send a message about the books, an event enquiry or Charles’s work using the form below.