From the author of the cult hit The Long Firm, a mind-bending, thrilling journey into 20th-century history and outer space.

A mind-bending, thrilling journey into 20th-century history and outer space - 'a brightly coloured portrait of our times that is alternatively intimate and epic . . . brilliant' (Independent on Sunday).

In 1941, Larry Zagorski was a naïve young writer of science-fiction. Seven decades on, he looks back on that crucial year and traces his place in a mysterious web - one that connects the Second World War with the Space Age, stretches from London to Cuba and Southern California, and links Ian Fleming with Rudolf Hess in a conspiracy that reverberates in the present.

Could this be the secret history of the 20th century? In a mesmerising novel peopled by spies and propagandists, the conned and the heartbroken, dreamers and fanatics, the question is: who will you believe?

"It may be the ideal holiday read for those who like to take their brains with them on vacation." - Mark Lawson, Guardian

"Highly entertaining and perhaps even mind-expanding, Arnott's high-class conjuring act shows that truth really is stranger than fiction." - Phil Baker, The Sunday Times

"A supremely intelligent book as well as a surprisingly warm one." - Roz Kaveney, Independent

"Arnott offers a brightly coloured portrait of our times that is alternatively intimate and epic...The House of Rumour is a brilliant achievement that invites repeated readings" - James Kidd, Independent on Sunday

"If this is that dark Prince Arnott's Jonbar Hinge, the future looks bright." - Andrew Anthony, Observer

"A potent mix of fact and fiction that takes on 20th-century history but remains a page-turner" - Elle

"The House of Rumour is a page-turner with exceptional style, depth, thought, camp, counter-history and intrigue. It's both sci-fi/fantasy pulp and an ambitiously epic work of cosmic proportions: a welcome paradox of a novel that boldly toys with the boundaries between high and low-brow art." - Kirkus Review

"It isn't a book, it's a revelation." - Geek Syndicate blog