Berlin, 2005: Will MacIntosh – the Canadian protagonist of James Macnutt’s previous, acclaimed, novel On Five Dollars a Day – is now a seasoned lawyer of almost 40 years who has allowed himself a three-month sabbatical in Europe. He intends to indulge his abiding fascination with European history and culture, and perhaps even connect with his own family history. Will’s interests are viewed with bemusement by his travelling companion Isaac Menshive, an old university friend who now practises surgery in New York and who views the trip as a welcome excuse to let rip. However, when they learn that Isaac has become the beneficiary of a staggeringly wealthy trust, the two of them determine to discover its origins, all the while aware that they are being followed across Eastern Europe by shadowy figures whose motives they can only guess at...

Moving across Europe from Berlin to Moscow via Poland and Belarus, The Mendelssohn Connection – the first in a trilogy – combines the structure of a travelogue, centred on the ever-bantering odd couple of Will and Isaac, with an impressively researched thriller, which patiently and methodically reveals a constantly growing, web-like conspiracy that threatens to envelop them completely