A Yeovil Literary Prize award winner
A lifeboat is lost off Cornwall’s wild Atlantic coast. All eight crewmen die. The cause is never fully explained.
Ten years later, Kate Tregillis, the editor of a small, struggling newspaper, becomes obsessed with solving the longstanding mystery.
Her investigations provoke a backlash of threats and violence in the insular fishing community of St Branok. In exposing the truth, she risks the future of her newspaper and even her life – and discovers that the man she loves has his own secrets.
Praise for The Echoing Shore:
‘A gripping story full of twists and turns’ – Margaret James, Writing Magazine.
‘An enthralling read that keeps you guessing to the end’ – Victoria Howard, author and judge for the international 2023 Yeovil Literary Prize.
‘I would definitely pick this book up from the bookshop shelf’ – Claire Gradidge, winner of the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition.
Jason Mann is an award-winning journalist and writer living in the South West of England with Nicola, his wife, and their lively whippet, Patch. He is also a shore-based volunteer for the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution.
Jason says: ‘Many of my stories are set in the wonderful county of Cornwall where truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction. I have swum and surfed there much of my life. It has been a special place for me with its legends, soaring cliffs, rugged moors and wild seas.
The landscape has a raw, mystical magic. My father and mother’s recollections of rescues and tragedies on the North coast are often the inspiration for my stories. My father became one of the county’s early lifeguards after his predecessor was killed by a strike of lightning while standing in
waist-deep water during a rescue.’
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My thoughts: This was so good, utterly gripping, with well written characters, a real sense of creeping menace and a brilliant plot. Dark deeds done in the deep waters off of my beloved Cornwall. In winter, when the tourists leave and only the locals remain, where the beauty of its coastline is hidden by bad weather and the grinding struggle to get by.
Kate has returned from London and is trying to keep the local paper solvent and a going concern in a time where fewer and fewer copies sell and there’s not much news to print. The arrival of a freelance writer looking into the loss of a lifeboat and it’s crew ten years ago stirs up old pain and new threats.
The boat’s crew were all lost, except one man, who was conveniently unwell and didn’t go, but then promptly left town. This seems suspicious and Kate agrees to help investigate whether it really was a terrible accident or something more sinister. Then the threats begin. Notes left in her cottage, a break in at the paper. Who could be trying to stop them reporting on the tragedy and why?
I was completely hooked, this is the other side of small town life, and Cornwall, where those rugged cliffs and swirling tides turn dangerous. Kate’s attempts to get answers put lives, including her own, at risk, and she could lose the paper too. A real page turner that will keep you up all night, desperate to finish it.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 