Crossing Over

Belfast. The city is on fire. Truth is a death sentence.

When ambitious London lawyer Lena Dawson arrives in Northern Ireland in 1987, she believes in the law, its structure, its power, its promise of fairness. But Belfast is a battlefield. The rules here are written in blood.

Thrown into the heart of the conflict, Lena defends a high-profile loyalist paramilitary case, instantly drawing the attention, and hostility, of a ruthless and well-connected QC. Then comes an unthinkable request: an IRA figure known as "the godfather" asks her to investigate the police killing of his brother. Accepting could destroy her career. Refusing could cost her far more.

As Lena digs deeper, she uncovers a chilling conspiracy stretching from the streets of Belfast to the corridors of power in Westminster. With every revelation, the stakes rise. Bombs detonate. Loyalties fracture. And the line between right and wrong begins to vanish.

In a city divided by fear and violence, it's not just the truth that's dangerous, it's who you become when you pursue it.

Written by acclaimed investigative journalist Anne Cadwallader, drawing on four decades of frontline reporting during the Troubles, Crossing Over is a gripping, authentic legal thriller infused with political intrigue, moral conflict, and a haunting undercurrent of forbidden love.

For readers of Milkman and Trespasses, this is a story that doesn't just explore history, it drags you deep into it.



Anne Cadwallader is a Belfast-based writer who worked for the BBC, RTÉ, and Reuters. Author of Holy Cross and Lethal Allies, she has given evidence to international audiences on justice and reconciliation in Ireland. Crossing Over is her first novel.



A very twisty legal thriller