Why a Booktrail?
1985: The woods hold a dark truth, and some will do anything to keep it in the shadows.
Broken Ghosts
What you need to know before your trail
She has just buried her parents, a fire at their family home claiming both in a freak accident. Now she must leave Scotland, the only place she has ever known, and go to live with her uncle Louis and aunt Maude in their home in the Welsh woods.
As spring turns to summer, Phoebe falls slowly into the rhythm of life with her eccentric guardians in their curious home. But there is no one her age in the nearby village, and she is lonely until she meets a strange girl, Gwyneth, who wanders the surrounding forest barefoot and alone.
Outsiders both, the two girls form a strong bond, though nobody else seems to believe that Gwyneth is real. Phoebe knows better, and soon with her new friend’s help, she begins to see the woods for what they truly are – a place of magic and wonder, where the line between life and death is blurred. Where spirits roam and secrets fester.
Something happened here, a lifetime ago. A wrong that yearns to be put right. The answer is within Phoebe’s grasp, but will revealing it put her in grave danger?
Travel Guide
The woods of Wales and Scotland
The setting is wonderful here – it’s a landscape of mountains, forests, valleys and hills. There are rivers and lakes and everything else you could hope for in a natural world. Phoebe wanders here and meets a local girl Gwyneth. Phoebe feels more and more at home and she and the landscape begin to understand one another. Well, there is lots of history and folkloric happenings here so who knows what could happen?
After the woods, we move to Edinburgh years later and see how the landscape of those woods has its roots here too.
Booktrailer Review
I don’t pretend to know what is involved in spending hours working on a farm and tending to highland cows in the highlands of Scotland but whatever gives James Oswald the inspiration and time to think of these plots then thank you. I’m guessing the farm is surrounded by shadows and gothic fog judging by the scene setting here and in his other worldly crime novels too. This is a very special read, set somewhere fictional thank goodness as I wouldn’t be brave enough to go there anyway.
Tragedy is your bookmark from the off. The scene setting in Wales and the woods is superb. Those woods around her aunt and uncles house are going to reveal a few things….
With a very young girl as the main character, there’s going to be a lot of exploring and thinking but this has the added interest of survival and loneliness.The nearest major town is Aberystwyth. And even as the book takes us only a short distance away, there is a real sense that anything could happen here, the local references are nicely done and the girl’s interpretation of it all.
Llancwm. Remember that name. What did happen there in 1985?
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Broken Ghosts
Destination/Location: Wales, Edinburgh Author: J D Oswald Departure: 1985
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