THE MUST READ HISTORICAL FICTION THRILLER OF THE YEAR
IT'S NOT ONLY WAR THAT CREATES MONSTERS ...
The Great War may be over but for disfigured veteran Charlie Hobbs, peace brings its own struggle. Appalled by his gruesome appearance, Hobbs enlists the help of renowned sculptor Francis Derwent Wood, who creates him a lifelike mask to conceal his broken face.
But in yearning for acceptance and a return to the life and the love, he left behind, Hobbs finds the country he fought for shattered by grief; an England in mourning for those who didn't return.
And he is about discover that it's not only war that creates monsters.
Demons can lurk deep within; and when they threaten to resurface, everything is at risk.
_____________________________________________________
Also available from Paul Coffey - Shadows of the Somme
'A NAME ON A HEADSTONE ... A CENTURY OF SECRETS'
'Harris looked up at the sky, crystal blue and cloudless ... he closed his eyes, put the whistle to his lips and blew.'
The first of July 1916 and in the French countryside tens of thousands of doomed British soldiers are being killed and wounded as the bloody Battle of the Somme begins.Captain Edward Harris, vainly encouraging his men over the top and headlong into the murderous German machine guns, is badly wounded. Crawling to a shell hole for cover, he lies helpless as the carnage continues around him.October 2015 and Tom Harris has no interest in the First World War. For him it's a conflict from another age. But during a visit to the battlefields he becomes fascinated by a headstone in a British war cemetery showing his namesake.Desperate to learn more Tom begins to delve into the past where he discovers ordinary men consumed by extraordinary times. And in doing so he unearths a remarkable and moving story of loss, despair, hope and redemption.
