This book makes a good start, introducing a pregnant female who has fears of losing her child. Her mate, some lord of the manor type, is withholding a Drs note which warns about the dangers of said female having a baby. So there’s a healthy amount of cloak and dagger going on.
Although we begin with fluid character development, things start to wane with the introduction of a witch type mystery lady who is almost mute and a boring old fart called Roger who should be mute, why are the old chaps always sexist clots?
This could make an interesting read, but in this short extract the narrative became too diffuse, and the plot didn’t hold enough intrigue to encourage further reading. A witch combined with a lady in need of a baby solution was a bit too basic and obvious.
The characters could have sounded more Lancastrian too, Old Roger could have spoken with an accent to add authenticity. There wasn’t anything, other than place names that stood out as Lancashire either, as the author went to UCLAN I would have expected a bit more.
The Shuttleworth name gave me a smile though, like John Shuttleworth the comedy folk singer, I hope he makes a guest appearance to lift the text somewhat.
Although we begin with fluid character development, things start to wane with the introduction of a witch type mystery lady who is almost mute and a boring old fart called Roger who should be mute, why are the old chaps always sexist clots?
This could make an interesting read, but in this short extract the narrative became too diffuse, and the plot didn’t hold enough intrigue to encourage further reading. A witch combined with a lady in need of a baby solution was a bit too basic and obvious.
The characters could have sounded more Lancastrian too, Old Roger could have spoken with an accent to add authenticity. There wasn’t anything, other than place names that stood out as Lancashire either, as the author went to UCLAN I would have expected a bit more.
The Shuttleworth name gave me a smile though, like John Shuttleworth the comedy folk singer, I hope he makes a guest appearance to lift the text somewhat.