You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic is Dale Hurst’s latest historical thriller. An epic tale of secrecy and salvation, brotherhood and betrayal, all taking place in the shadow of World War II.

This is the story of Heinrich Oeunhausen, a young hotelier, Nazi Party member, husband, brother, employer, and protector; and guest Cordelia Knesebeck. While Heinrich wants to keep his business as undisturbed as possible, Cordelia quickly makes a nuisance of herself by eavesdropping and snooping.

One of her discoveries is the catalyst for their unlikely alliance. Heinrich is protecting not just one, but two secrets. He is forced to keep his wife Sofie hidden from the world, as she is mentally ill and a target of the Nazis, including Heinrich’s benefactor and family friend, Standartenführer Upfauer. Sofie’s psychosis is pacified solely by music from above, provided by a different kind of guest – the elderly Itzhak Zylberman, a Polish Jew who is consigned to a hidden attic annexe to play Chopin for the sake of his own life.

Heinrich’s struggle to protect both his charges affect the lives of many, including the conniving accountant Franz Verschuer, Heinrich’s brother Konrad, impudent concierge Alois Seyss, and Upfauer’s subordinate Hoesch. Facing threats from all sides, can Heinrich keep his wife, his staff, and his secrets safe?

You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic is still currently a work in-progress. However, you can check out updates by clicking here.

The Berylford Scandals: Lust & Liberty is a romantic mystery novel, and the first that Dale published. It is the first instalment to The Berylford Scandals series, and introduces several fan-favourite characters.

The novel centres around the grief-riddled Oliviera, Countess of Vyrrington, whose marriage to the silent Lord Wilson is failing. She conducts an affair with one of her servants, Jesse Blameford, whom she brought into her household after he was embroiled in a scandal of his own. Throughout all this, she contends with the threats of the dogged household butler Whitlocke, the sudden disappearance of a servant boy in the night, and a cryptic message sent to one of her friends.

Find out more about Lust & Liberty here, or visit Amazon to buy it now.

The follow-up to Lust & Liberty is The Berylford Scandals: Sin & Secrecy, published in 2020. This was, in fact, the first novel that Dale began working on all the way back in 2008. However, he opted to publish the stories in chronological order, and released Lust & Liberty first for this reason.

Sin & Secrecy picks up 20 years on from the events of the previous instalment, and finds Lady Vyrrington now in the full grip of melancholy – a shell of her former self. However, this story surrounds her mysterious cousin Abel Stirkwhistle and the war between him and his sister, the schoolmistress Miss Rebecca. She has no shortage of enemies in Berylford, many of whom have murderous designs. One of those designs becomes a reality — which of Miss Rebecca’s enemies got to her first?

Find out more about Sin & Secrecy here, or visit Amazon to buy it now.