Dark Shadows Over Coronation Close (Coronation Cloe #3) by Lizzie Lane
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas, Pre-WW2
Read: 5th January 2024
Published: 2nd January 2024
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
There’s talk of war and dark clouds fester on the horizon...
Bristol 1938
A shadowy presence overshadows Coronation Close, watching and waiting. Jenny Crawford is the first to notice the stranger and wonders why his attention is fixed on Thelma Dawson’s house. When challenged he makes a hasty retreat.
Meanwhile Thelma is having trouble with her precocious daughter Mary who is about to leave school and start work. Mary considers herself an adult but to Thelma she’s still a little girl; an attitude resented by her daughter.
Unknown to her mother, Mary is secretly befriended by a stranger, an older man who treats her as the grown up she thinks she is. But what does this man want with this naïve young girl?
Problems shared are problems halved. Jenny and Thelma certainly share theirs as the shadow of war rolls over from Europe and nothing seems certain.
MY THOUGHTS:
It's 1938 in Bristol and the threat of war continues to hang over Britain. But for those in Coronation Close, life goes on as ever.
Jenny Crawford is busy raising her two girls Tilly and Gloria at No.2 but a postcard with some unexpected news threatens to topple her world has she has come to know it. Two years ago, when they first moved into Coronation Close Jenny's husband Roy was a nasty piece who when he wasn't home ran with Oswald Mosley's blackshirts and when he was home used his fists to drive home his authority. But then Roy discovered another way of life and signed up for the army, sending his pay back to support Jenny and the girls. This arrangement suited them both perfectly. But news of Roy's sudden illness means he has been medically discharged and was coming home. What does this mean for Jenny now?
And then there is Jenny's work in Robin Hubert's pawn and secondhand store. Robin and Jenny go way back and had once held a torch for each other but fate stepped in and they married other people - she to Roy and Robin to Doris. Roy would never allow Jenny to work and nor would he allow her friendship with Robin to continue, though it was clear the pair still carried that flaming torch. Robin has made no secret of his feelings though his own troubles with Doris make life difficult for all involved, as Doris has a taste for fancy men, rich men, and the lifestyle to go with it. She continues to use the children as pawns in her games to win against Robin, holding the threat of losing them over him to force his hand into doing what she wants. Not including Doris in the scheme of things, what did Roy's return mean for Robin and Jenny's friendship?
Thelma Dawson is also raising her daughters Mary and Alice alone with her adult son George now married and expecting a baby of their own. Her life continues on its even keel whilst seeing Bert Throgmorton on occasion, and she's happy. But when Jenny spotted a stranger staring at Thelma's house one day and later mentioned it to her, Thelma began to fear who it would be. There were only two possibilities...and she didn't favour either one of them.
Then her eldest daughter Mary begins acting out. She's 13 going on 30 and believes she knows all and is old enough to do what she wants, her mother couldn't stop her. She had been seeing a boy from a local band of gypsies but when they moved on her attentions moved elsewhere in the form of a stranger who began to show an interest in young Mary. Then one night, Mary hasn't come home and Thelma is frantic with worry as to what might have happened. The last anyone saw of her was when Alice saw Mary walking out of the Close and when she called her, she ran off.
Did Mary leave of her own accord? Or was she taken?
Another emotional yet easy read in the lives of those in Coronation Close. We see the flight of one lot of neighbours who then make way for a new set of neighbours...neither of whom are popular with the rest of the Close. All the while, the threat of war continues to loom over them.
I must admit, I'm a bit like Jenny. I don't want to hear anything or know anything about the possibility of war. I could see myself every time Jenny's internal monologue screamed "NO!" and she switched off the radio to silence any further talk of War.
I am really enjoying this series. I enjoyed the Tobacco Girls but I think I am enjoying this one even more and I can't wait to see what's in store for the residents of Coronation Close next.
A delightfully easy read that is compelling, enjoyable and entertaining.
I would like to thank #LizzieLane, #Netgalley and #BoldwoodBooks for an ARC of #DarkShadowsOverCoronationClose in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Working jobs she's hated purely to keep a roof over her family’s head and a meal on the table, she then discovered writing. Encouraged by an American writer friend and when a time came there were no jobs and no other option, she took the plunge. She is now the author of over 50 books, a number of which have been bestsellers. As a Bristolian, many of her family worked in the cigarette and cigar factories, inspiring her new saga series The Tobacco Girls.
Up until six years ago her home (and that of her late husband) was a 46ft sailing yacht named Sarabande Serene, sailing into the Mediterranean. So besides being a successful author Lizzie can read navigation charts and react swiftly in a storm.
Lizzie is now landlocked in a town close to the city of Bath.
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