When ten bodies vanish from Westminster Public Mortuary, no alarm is raised. There is no log, no alert, no investigation. Hours later, the bodies reappear — burned beyond recognition inside vehicles ignited simultaneously across London. Terrorism is assumed. The city locks down.

Yet Britain’s intelligence system does nothing.

Jonathan Hale is a senior barrister and Special Advocate, one of the few lawyers permitted to operate inside the state’s most secret legal processes. Summoned to review a classified operational mandate, Hale discovers something more disturbing than failure: the attacks were detected in real time, but the system had been lawfully instructed to ignore them. Blindness has been engineered into the law itself.

As Hale follows the trail across Europe, evidence of foreign involvement proves too neat to trust. Intelligence agencies that should be rivals appear instead to be coordinating. Witnesses die quietly. Doors open too easily. Someone wants him to see the truth — but not to survive speaking it.

At the centre of the investigation is Alice Mercer, an English cultural attaché who offers access, understanding, and intimacy as Hale’s professional detachment begins to fracture. Only later does he grasp the full extent of his manipulation.

Hale uncovers the Alignment: a covert accord between the world’s dominant powers, designed to prevent great-power war by quietly managing conflict, elections, and consent itself. Democracy continues — but only within carefully drawn limits.

When Hale’s family is targeted, the choice becomes brutally simple: accept protection and silence, or refuse and lose everything.

Under Colour of Law is a gripping geopolitical thriller about power that believes it is right, law that has learned to look away, and the cost of choosing integrity in a world that prizes stability above truth.