Arthur Koestler slouched in his living room armchair, dead with a whiskey glass in his hand. His wife Cynthia was found lying lifeless on the sofa, facing him. Two empty wine glasses, a jar of honey, and an empty bottle of Tuinal—a powerful sedative—stood between them on the coffee table. Double-suicide was suspected, but Westminster Court Coroner Jack Candrel was troubled. Why did Cynthia, twenty-five years younger than Arthur and in good health, kill herself? A bold work of historical fiction, Self-Deliverance: A Love Story, explores the circumstances and unexpected consequences of the real-life Koestler suicides. In his search for the truth, Jack Candrel is drawn closer to two dynamic women: Rita Rosecliff, a beautiful and talented investigator in his office, and ballerina Kristie Gertz, Arthur Koestler’s illegitimate daughter. Both have their own unique preoccupations—Rita, justice and Kristie, abandonment—that shape Jack’s formal investigation and his own personal search for meaning and fulfillment. Combining mystery, romance, and history, Self-Deliverance: A Love Story, probes the true nature of love—and the ultimate sacrifices we take to find it and hold it close.