In Too Deep - Bea Davenport

'How had it come to this, I thought. What do I do now?'


Maura Wood is looking back, something has triggered a memory. A photograph in a newspaper. It's of Kim Carter. For a short time they were best friends. Except Kim is dead and Maura 'ran away and became another person.' It was five years ago when Kim died, and Maura has a new identity, and has moved to live and work in South London and try to escape the past. 

Taking us back to five years ago, we drop in on Maura's life then. She lived in Dowerby, a market town in northern England, having moved there with her husband Nick and their young daughter Rosie. From the way Maura describes Dowerby, with its castle and tourist attractions, and the locals who aren't keen on newcomers, it's clear she isn't overly enamoured with the place, to put it mildly, a view that subsequently turned to hatred: 

'Does it seem crazy to feel hatred for a place? Or do you really just hate what happened there? I think I really hate Dowerby, as much as if it was a person. For its smallness, its unwelcoming feeling, its inability to change. I'm grateful to London, though, for allowing me and those like me, to blend into its people-wallpaper, totally unseen.'

Five years ago, preparations were in motion for the annual Dowerby Fair, and Nick is a key organiser of the events, seeking more publicity for the fair to attract higher visitor numbers.  Kim Carter arrives in the town to work as the new district reporter for the regional evening paper. Maura gets to know her, and is friendly towards her unlike many of the locals. Kim is talented and confident, and she becomes like a sister/best friend that Maura has never had before; up until Kim arrives, she made do with her husband and child's company, with no real friends. A firm bond grows between them. Maura laughs and relaxes in Kim's company, and finds a new side to herself, a side she can't express at home. Her behaviour changes through her friendship with Kim. She even starts working with her, gaining more independence, though she is fearful that Nick won't approve of this. He is often unkind and critical in the way he speaks to her, and as the story moves on, we realise that his cruel, controlling and abusive treatment of Maura is not limited to words. I liked a lot of things about Maura, I was glad she had this new friendship and the work that boosted her self-esteem, but I felt saddened at how she was still with Nick after some of his actions had been described; a couple of times I willed her to act differently. 

Back to the present and there is talk of the fair being revived after a five year absence, cancelled as we learn at the start of the novel after Kim's death. Talk of a possible revival has reignited interest in the events surrounding the fair five years ago. Maura, living her new life, working two jobs, surviving alone, suddenly realises that someone is watching her, following her, a reporter asking about her and wanting to resurrect the past. 

I really enjoyed In Too Deep and once I started reading, I raced through it eager to learn more and discover what exactly had happened in the past and how everything fitted together, as well as wanting to know what would happen in the present. I thought there was a good amount of suspense in the story, and the author caused me to ask myself questions, to doubt characters, to question their motives. The characters are well-drawn, they are rounded, with good qualities and with faults. I was convinced by the portrayal of Nick, a nice man on the face of it, his true, awful nature shown in his home. Similarly Kim felt real to me, a beautiful and clever lady, good at her job, but perhaps too keen to ruffle people's feathers and one of those people who can mean so much more as a friend to others than they might to her - though I do think she cared for Maura. I liked the insight into journalism too. The setting, the claustrophobic, at times small-minded community, was vividly depicted. I hoped that things would be better for Maura and there was one aspect of her current life, something missing from it, that I thought must have been incredibly painful.

I found this a tense, compelling, well-paced and nicely structured story, and I would definitely read more from this author in the future. 

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this novel for an honest review. 

Author links - twitter @BerwickBabs | website

Published by Legend Press

Dance the Moon Down - R. L. Bartram

'Do you think they'll remember us, when we're gone?' Victoria asked. 'The next generation, I mean. What we did, what we saw, how far we've come? Or will it be just another history lesson, a story in a book?'

Dance the Moon Down is an engaging and well-researched historical portrait of one young woman's life in rural England during the Great War.

Victoria has enjoyed a comfortable middle-class life prior to the war, with her father supporting her continuing her studies, enabling her to benefit from education for longer than many women at that time. Whilst studying she makes friends with Beryl Whittacker, a staunch advocate of women's rights and independence, and she also meets the gifted poet Gerald Avery, with whom she falls in love. The two spend such happy times together, and the feelings of joy and love Victoria experiences are wonderful;

'It was to be an unforgettable year - a year of risk and excitement, of secret liaisons, the fear of discover, of reluctant partings and counting the minutes until they were together again…She was light as a feather, whilst all around her the world seemed wonderfully bright and inexpressibly beautiful. She'd never been so happy. She was so very much in love that she hardly knew where she was, except when she was with him…She felt as if she'd been only half alive before she'd met him...'

After a battle with Victoria's mother, the pair start to make a life together in the countryside. A strong love and bond grows between Victoria and Gerald prior to World War I. However as I read I was afraid as to what would happen to them when the war began. 

The tale follows Victoria's subsequent search for news of Gerald when he has gone missing in France after volunteering to fight. She is persistent and fiercely determined to discover what has happened to him, she scours the lists of the dead, she goes to London and enquires there, never giving up the hope that he is alive, just as so many other women await news of their men, whether sons, husbands, brothers, fathers; …'women, their faces tired and drawn, who were sick at heart with waiting and worrying.' Victoria is accused of being a spy and we see how this blot on her character will influence her future choices.

She returns to the countryside, to Staunton Gifford near the south coast, where she must get used to a much lower standard of living than she was once used to, and she eventually finds work, albeit hard, physical work as a farm labourer; '...Victoria understood that even though the work was backbreaking, it was still work. Without it, you didn't get paid, and if you didn't get paid, you starved. It was a part of life she'd never had to consider before.' There she makes firm friendships with some of the other women who are similarly employed, friendships that cross the social/class barriers. I won't write any further about the plot, as it is for the reader to discover further what happens to Victoria and to Gerald.

I must admit that I found the narrative perhaps a little overly descriptive at first, but then the story grew and blossomed fully to life and I was caught up in it fully, eager to see what the path ahead would hold for these characters. The author vividly conveys the determination and perseverance, and sheer hard physical work that so many did at home during the war in support of the country and of those overseas. It was brave of the author to tackle the female point of view here and he gives a fresh, compassionate and honest portrait of the lives, trials and struggles of those left behind during wartime. He has paid keen attention to detail, and the novel shows his careful research of the times and the events of this period; I felt transported back to another time. 

I really liked the portrayal of Beryl, her independence, fighting for what she believed in despite being considered a criminal, and her urging Victoria to want to make more of life and not just settle down and get married. But it felt right too, that this is what Victoria wanted, and that she could defend that choice. It was interesting to see the depiction of women trying to break free from convention but at the same time to be able to have the freedom to make their own choices either way. And Beryl is a rounded character; despite her independence and her actions as a suffragette demanding progress, she is nevertheless susceptible to romance. I admired Victoria for the way she adapted to the hand life had dealt her, and the way she was prepared to us her knowledge and abilities to help others who had had less chances in life than her thus far, whether due to lack of education or due to poverty.

R. L. Bartram has incorporated some lovely details and nice touches in his story; there was a moving incident involving a photograph in a newspaper, and a very poignant moment near to the end of the story which had me on the verge of tears. A very promising historical fiction debut that brims with romance, friendship, endurance and hope through adversity, and captures a time of great hardship and change; I'm very glad to have read this novel and the memory of the story has stayed in my mind since reading it.

Source - author review copy in exchange for an honest review

Self published via Authors Online