The Cornish Blacksmith's Daughter

by Rosemary Aitken

Set in the author's home county during the First World War, this historical saga follows Verity Tregorran, who works with the local police constable's wife to uncover the truth after stumbling upon evidence of German spies on the nearby cliffs.

Genres: Historical Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published June 12, 2023

About the author

Rosemary Aitken was born in Cornwall but spent much of her early life in New Zealand. Her professional career was spent teaching English Language and she has written a number of textbooks on this subject. Her first historical novel, The Girl from Penvarris, was published in 1995, the first in a series set in a fictional Cornish village.

Under the name Rosemary Rowe she has written a series of mysteries, set in and around the Roman town of Glevum, (modern-day Gloucester). The detective in the stories, named Libertus, is a pavement-maker, whose expertise in mosaic patterns parallels his skill in resolving puzzling crimes.
(source: wikipedia)

Series:
* Cornish Sagas

Reviews

[Lynn Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A WW1 saga with sadness, intrigue and happiness. A lovely easy read for a cold winter's night.

[Ronan Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this on a whim. The cover makes it look like a romance but it's not - it's more a very-mild-peril crime thriller set in WW1 Cornwall.

It's all quite linear - no extraneous detail or character is included and everyone gets a happy ending - but quite sweet in its own way.

(The writing is no more than ok, so I was a bit surprised to read the author has written textbooks on fiction writing!)

[Ann Westcott · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Dreadful. Only got as far as page 49. Full of cliches and misspelt Cornish place names. Was given it with another book in the same series which I will not be reading! This is most definitely not in the same league as the Poldark novels.