After ten years of marriage, Patrick and Iris Orde have become complacent and passionless in their marriage and in their lives. When they inherit Iris's father's estate in Corfu, the change of scenery and the warmth of the Mediterranean sun seem just what they need. Patrick is able to devote himself to his hobbies, while Iris, a doctor, opens a clinic to treat the impoverished peasants. But when a meeting with a former lover reawakens old memories for Iris, and Patrick finds himself drawn to Soula, a village girl whose brother Stavro has a strange fondness for Patrick, a sequence of terrible events is set in motion that will lead to tragedy. . . .

Francis King (1923-2011) ranked The Dark Glasses (1954), the fifth of his more than forty volumes of fiction, as one of his favourites among his own works and believed it was one of his most underrated. This edition, the novel's first-ever republication, features a new introduction by Jonathan Fryer and the original jacket art.