Written in Pencil

A fifty-year-old secret. A quiet life built on a lie. How far would you go to unearth the truth?

Following the quiet funeral of his mother Monica, retired merchant navy man John Anning sets out to clear out her south London flat. But tucked away in the back of a drawer, he uncovers a hidden shoebox of letters written in soft pencil—the careful, deniable medium of a man who didnt want to leave a trace.

Among the documents is a shocking wedding photograph revealing that Johns father was not a lost Wehrmacht soldier, but a high-ranking SS officer with close ties to the inner circle of the Reich. Compounded by the mystery of a bank account quietly accumulating a fortune over decades, John enlists the help of a sharp, discreet investigator named Kit Avenue.

Together, John and Kit follow a cold trail from London to the Harz mountains of Germany, tracing a network of post-war ratlines, hidden identities, and a living father who traded his swastika for a black cassock. But as the layers of deception peel back, John realizes that some pasts are buried for a reason—and uncovering them may come with a deadly price.

Written in Pencil is a gripping historical mystery and thriller about family secrets, hidden pasts, and the long shadows cast by the Second World War.

G. Patrick Battell is the author of The Shocking History of the Jesuits (The Society of Jesus), Did the Catholic Church Order Abraham Lincolns Assassination?, and The Last Nazi of Munich: Volume 1. Written in Pencil is his newest work of fiction, a series of short stories featuring John Anning and Kit Avenue.