The History Teacher

How do you know what you know is true?During the blizzard of 1978 a woman is discovered face down at the edge of her Delaware estate a boxer half-dead by her side. Nearby in a deep ravine a CIA officer lies buried under two feet of snow. Their secret meeting-sabotaged.When Emma Quinn gets a call in her Manhattan apartment-your grandmother out walking her dog found dead in the snow-she has no reason to suspect foul play. A history professor at Columbia and the sole heir to the Quinn fortune she heads down to Delaware where her grandmothers death has triggered a series of unsettling events-a break-in at the estate an unexpected visit from the CIA and the discovery of a disturbing collection of news clippings in an upstairs study-about hijackings bombings and acts of terror. Back in Manhattan Emma is being followed by a mysterious stranger. Her distress grows when she meets a well-known historian a Scotsman and Sovietologist named Angus McLearan who accuses her late grandfather of wrongdoing during the 1930s and 40s.Determined to clear her grandfathers name and to understand her grandmothers fate Emma forms an uneasy alliance with McLearan. Together they head deeper into an intrigue that harks back to the beginnings of the Cold War and the early days of the intelligence community. As Emmas research and the CIAs investigation into the death of their agent begin to intersect she no longer knows who or what to believe. And it soon becomes apparent that this isnt just about something that happened in the 1940s. Its about an operation that is still in play in 1978 one that puts Emma-and the broader world-at risk. When a discovery leads her to her familys remote Adirondack cabin the stranger follows. There Emma is forced to confront the truth-about her family and about history as we know it.