Laura is attractive, unconventional, and in her prime. When she walks out on an unhappy love affair, she is looking for diversion. She finds herself in southern Crete on an archaeological dig, during the Colonels' dictatorship, with an ill-assorted, often hilarious, always turbulent group. As they dig deeper into the Minoan tombs, uncomfortable truths are exposed and civilized facades slip- with lethal consequences. While Laura's sensible friend, Jenny behaves frenetically, Bill, Jenny's husband and dig leader, is absorbed in his own image and archaeological politics, Christopher, a rich, elegant archaeologist, disconcerts Laura, while a local red-headed Greek finds her irresistible. Young Adam grows increasingly aggressive as the sinister, gun-toting figure of a policeman unsettles them all. Set against dramatic Cretan landscapes and with fascinating inside knowledge of the island and of archaeologists, Digging is an intricate and gripping first novel. Lucy Cadogan writes compellingly about shifting relationships, with wit, irony and a remarkable control of an ebullient cast of characters.