The Proof Of My Innocence

A blisteringly funny political critique wrapped up in a murder mystery, from one of Britain's most beloved novelists.

When Phyl, a young literature graduate, moves back home with her parents, she soon finds herself frustrated by the narrow horizons of English country life. As for her budding plans of becoming a writer, those are going nowhere. But the chance discovery of a forgotten novelist from the 1980s stirs her into action, as does a visit from a family friend, Chris - especially when he tells her that he’s working on a political story that could put his life in danger.

Chris has been following the progress of an opaque think-tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, which has been steadily pushing the British government in a more extreme direction. After years in the political wilderness, they are finally poised to put their ideas into action.

As Britain finds itself under the leadership of a new Prime Minister whose tenure will only last for seven weeks, Chris pursues his story to a conference being held deep in the Cotswolds, where events take a sinister turn and a murder enquiry is soon in progress. But will the solution to the mystery lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old?

Darting between decades and genres, The Proof of My Innocence re-imagines the cosy-crime caper, dark academia and the auto-biographical novel with Coe’s trademark humour and warmth. From one of Britain’s finest living novelists, this is a wickedly funny and razor-sharp novel, showing how the key to understanding the present can often be found in the murkiest corners of the past.