Amazon UK £2.79 £12.00
Amazon US $3.45 $16.99
Amazon CA $22.64
Military
WWI / Irish Uprising
England and Ireland
This is a thoroughly researched novel
that begins with the Irish rebellion in Dubin in 1916 and moves to the front
lines of World War I. It is the first of The Carmody Saga, a fictional family,
but the events with which they become entangled are all too real. The week long
“rising” in April 1916 and its aftermath, is followed by imprisonment in
Frongoch, in North Wales, for young Danny.
Danny's father is shot whilst collecting
important research papers from the College of Surgeons and the family moves to
his mother-in-law's home in Greenwich. Danny's older brother, Patrick, training
to become a surgeon like his late father, joins a hospital ship. Their sister,
Jenny, is injured in a Zeppelin raid. Meanwhile a close family friend, also a
medic, treats injured soldiers.
Later Danny becomes a reluctant recruit
to the British army. The depictions of the horrors of war are graphic. The
rivalries and romances of the family members drawn with conviction. The many
twists and turns of fate and fortune that afflict each member, and the way each
responds, kept me turning the pages. This powerfully written novel provides
moments of pleasure and pain, drama and horror that never fails to excite.
Given this is book one, and
occupies two very turbulent years in Irish and British history, it is hard to
imagine how Ms Petken will match the excitement as the family leaves the war
behind. Of course, there is the violence of the guerrilla warfare that preceded
Irish independence, and the brief but bloody civil war that followed. Danny,
the passionate believer in Irish Independence, will surely have a part to play
in these events that formed the Irish nation. What, though, of the other family
members with their careers in medicine? Perhaps you can see that I am
completely hooked, and desperate to read the next instalment.
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| Cover selected for Cover of the Month |
© Frank Parker
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