Author: whatcathyreadnext

Throwback Thursday: Shelter by Sarah Franklin

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ThrowbackThursday

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme originally created by Renee at It’s Book Talk. It’s designed as an opportunity to share old favourites as well as books that we’ve finally got around to reading that were published over a year ago.

Today I’m revisiting a book I reviewed early on in my blogging ‘career’ – Shelter by Sarah Franklin.  First published in hardback July 2017, it was recently published in paperback with an evocative new cover. A perfect excuse to grab a copy if you haven’t already read this fabulous book!

You can read my original review below and also my interview with Sarah about Shelter here.

Shelter PBAbout the Book

Early Spring, 1944. In a clearing deep within an English forest two lost souls meet for the first time. Connie Granger has escaped the devastation of her bombed out city home. She has found work in the Women’s Timber Corps, and for her, this remote community must now serve a secret purpose. Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war, is haunted by his memories. But in the forest camp, he finds a strange kind of freedom. Their meeting signals new beginnings. In each other they find the means to imagine their own lives anew and to face that which each fears the most.

But outside their haven, the world is ravaged by war and old certainties are crumbling. Both Connie and Seppe must make a life-defining choice which threatens their fragile existence. How will they make sense of this new world, and find their place within it? What does it mean to be a woman, or a foreign man, in these days of darkness and new light? A beautiful, gentle and deeply powerful novel about finding solace in the most troubled times, about love, about hope and about renewal after devastation. It asks us to consider what makes a family, what price a woman must pay to live as she chooses, and what we’d fight to the bitter end to protect.

Format: Hardcover, ebook, paperback (432 pp.)            Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre
Published: Hardcover 27th July ‘17, Paperback 31st May ’18 Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com | Hive.co.uk (supporting local UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Shelter on Goodreads

My Review

All her life Connie’s had the urge to break away, to explore what life has to offer away from the streets and factories of Coventry. She doesn’t know what form this new life will take or how she’s going to do it. What she does know it that she’s got to do it. Spirited, determined and reckless, the Second World War brings Connie the opportunity to seek what she’s looking for but the price for that opportunity is a high one. Forced by circumstances to be totally self-reliant and desperate to leave bad memories behind, she joins the Women’s Timber Corps and finds herself posted to The Forest of Dean to train as a ‘lumberjill’.

Chance brings together Connie and Seppe, an Italian POW, who is trying to escape his own demons. Thoughtful and sensitive, Seppe is initially cowed by his traumatic relationship with his violent father whose malevolent presence seems able to reach even into the confines of the POW camp.  ‘The spikes of his father’s rancour were undimmed by the flimsy paper. A spiral of venom rose from the lines, the sheen of anger, pride and sheer vicious temper bitter in Seppe’s mouth.’

Despite being haunted by guilt and by what he witnessed during the war, Seppe gradually grows in inner strength as he finds acceptance from the local community.   For Connie and Seppe, the forest provides shelter from the outside world – quite literally at times.   However, for those born and bred in the forest, the war, and those it brings in its wake, is an unwanted incursion into their lives.  ‘Those evacuees are still out here, causing chaos in the school. And…we’ve got Yanks in the forest, whole regiments of them…The other big change is that we’ve got POWs up at Broadwell.’

The war is also a threat to the very existence of the forest itself with the constant demands for timber to support the war effort.  ‘The forest itself warned them of loss even as they chopped it down. Bloody great gaps staring at them in the very woods that had sheltered them all their lives, and people pulled from this life into a new world that swallowed them up.’

I loved the way the author made the forest another character in the story with almost human qualities: ‘Amos pushed in amongst the branches until they almost held him in an embrace.’ I thought the author struck a good balance between historical fact about wartime events and the story of Connie, Seppe and the other inhabitants of The Forest of Dean.   Sometimes events erred slightly on the side of convenience but I think we must allow an author some artistic licence and, who knows, sometimes things are just meant to be. Finally, I always admire an author who is brave enough not to spell out the conclusion of a book but to let the reader imagine it for themselves.

I thought this was an outstanding debut. Shelter has an authentic period atmosphere with wonderful characters who take you on an intense but heart-warming journey.  I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Bonnier Zaffre, in return for an honest review.

In three words: Intimate, atmospheric, emotional

Try something similar…Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik (read my review here)

Sarah FranklinAbout the Author

Sarah Franklin grew up in rural Gloucestershire and now lives with her family between Oxford and London. She has written for the Guardian, Psychologies magazine, The Pool, the Sunday Express and the Seattle Times. Her creative non-fiction has been published in anthologies in the USA and appeared on radio affiliates there. Sarah is founder and host of popular Oxford literary night, Short Stories Aloud, a Senior Lecturer at the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies, and a judge for the Costa Short Story Award. She was awarded a mentorship under the Jerwood/Arvon scheme to work on her debut novel, Shelter, which will be published by Bonnier Zaffre in July 2017.

Connect with Sarah

Website ǀ Twitter ǀ Goodreads

Book Review: The Mountain Man’s Badge by Gary Corbin

whatcathyreadnext

The Mountain Man's BadgeAbout the Book

Lehigh Carter never wanted to be sheriff. And he sure never wanted to arrest his new father-in-law for murder.

Mountain Man Lehigh Carter got talked into serving the unexpired term of disgraced long-time Mt. Hood County sheriff Buck Winters, hoping for a quiet nine months in office before the voters selected a new, permanent office-holder. But a few months into the job, poachers discover the body of Everett Downey, a sleazy local businessman, and the evidence points to Lehigh’s brand-new father-in-law, the once-powerful senator George McBride. To his chagrin and his new bride’s fury, Lehigh is forced to arrest George for the murder, and suddenly his happy marriage is on the rocks. Soon he’s living in a tent with only his two dogs for companionship.

While most people in Mt. Hood County appreciate Lehigh’s honesty and his willingness to fight the cronyism and corruption that have plagued Mt. Hood County law enforcement for decades, his desire for reform ruffles some important feathers. Lehigh finds himself fighting unseen enemies, determined to portray him as inept and more corrupt than his predecessor – even at the cost of protecting the integrity of the murder investigation. Even his own deputies seem intent on bringing back the old guard, and a series of evidence leaks put Lehigh’s reputation and ability to serve as sheriff in jeopardy.

Lehigh’s not a quitter, though, and with dogged persistence, begins to chip away at the investigation, discovering facts that don’t add up…and leads him to suspect why some of those most intent on removing him from office have reasons far more sinister than Lehigh’s reform agenda.  Can Lehigh uncover the truth behind Everett Downey’s murder without becoming the killer’s next victim?

Format: ebook (384 pp.)        Publisher: Double Diamond Publishing
Published: 20th June 2018     Genre: Crime, Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Mountain Man’s Badge on Goodreads

My Review

The Mountain Man’s Badge is the third book in the author’s Mountain Man Mysteries series, following on from The Mountain Man’s Dog and The Mountain Man’s Bride. I haven’t read the earlier books but, on the strength of this one, they now have a place on my wish-list. Although this third instalment can be enjoyed as a standalone, it does mention events in the earlier books so for full enjoyment I would recommend reading the series from the beginning.

The first chapter, set at a political fundraiser for interim Sheriff Lehigh Carter, allows the author to introduce key characters and reference events from the first two books in the series.   It’s soon clear that Lehigh has influential relatives, chiefly his father-in-law George McBride, but also some potentially powerful enemies. As events unfold, the reader learns that Mt. Hood County is a place of vested interests, corruption and score-settling.

The author does a great job of conveying the atmosphere of a small town, albeit one that seems overrun with greasy spoon diners, sleazy strip clubs and dingy sports bars. Furthermore, in this ‘small pond’ there are ‘big fish’ who believe they run the show, that they always will and who will stop at nothing – and I mean nothing – to cling on to their power and influence.

You can imagine how they feel about Lehigh‘s appointment as interim Sheriff. He’s honourable, decent and determined to root out the cronyism that has infected the office of Sheriff in the past. As he says early on in the book: ‘I’m gonna fix this place or get run out of town trying.’   This is despite the fact that he’s feels thrust into a role for which he is ill-equipped. What makes Lehigh such a likeable character is the fact that he does make a few rookie mistakes but he never loses his sense of what’s right, even if that means risking his marriage to bride of two years, Stacy.  It has to be said however that he goes through a few ‘long dark nights of the soul’ wondering if he’s doing the right thing.

As the investigation into the murder of local businessman Everett Downey progresses, readers may well begin to have their own suspicions about who is the true culprit but it transpires that getting the necessary proof is fraught with danger, for Lehigh in particular.  There are those involved who aren’t afraid to fight back, even if this means going outside the law or sacrificing others to keep themselves safe.  It also becomes clear that Lehigh cannot necessarily trust everyone around him.  The tension builds to a dramatic conclusion during which Lehigh comes to the surprising (to him) realisation that he has more support than he thought.

The author is a scriptwriter and this certainly shows when it comes to the dialogue in the book which is realistic, sharp and full of humour. It’s how real people talk to each other over coffee and a donut. I really enjoyed The Mountain Man’s Badge; it’s an engaging and well-crafted crime mystery with a likeable protagonist and which tackles that universal theme of the good guy fighting largely single-handed against the bad guys.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Entertaining, suspenseful, mystery

Try something similar…Poor Boy Road by James L. Weaver (read my review here)

GaryCorbinAbout the Author

Gary Corbin is a writer, actor, and playwright in Camas, WA, a suburb of Portland, OR.  An award-winning playwright, several of his plays have been produced in the Portland, OR area, some of them multiple times. In addition to his own scripts, Gary writes, ghost-writes, and edits scripts. He specializes in tight, realistic dialogue involving sharply drawn, interesting characters in complex relationships.  Gary is a member of PDX Playwrights, the Portland Area Theater Alliance, the Willamette Writers Group and the Bar Noir Writers Workshop, and participates in workshops and conferences in the Portland, Oregon area.

A homebrewer as well as a maker of wine, mead, cider, and soft drinks, Gary is a member of the Oregon Brew Crew and a BJCP National Beer Judge. He loves to ski, cook, and garden, and hopes someday to train his dogs to obey. And when that doesn’t work, there’s always Renegade’s Paradise.

Connect with Gary

Website  ǀ Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads