The Cornish Blacksmith's Daughter

by Rosemary Aitken

Verity Tregorran is one of the local blacksmith’s nine daughters, and madly in love with the boy next door, Ned Chegwidden , who is now serving in the trenches of World War I. She must withhold her true feelings for Ned from her parents, who would be horrified to learn of her attachment to someone outside the family’s strict Christian sect. On the coastal path one evening, Verity witnesses something suspicious on the cliffs which causes her to fear the involvement of German spies. There’s only one person she can turn Effie Dawes , wife of the local police constable. Effie faces tragedy as her husband fights overseas, while scandal threatens to rock Verity’s family, but the two friends remain determined in their efforts to discover what really happened on the cliffs… An enthralling wartime saga perfect for fans of Lynn Johnson and Francesca Capaldi.

Genres: Historical Fiction

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 23, 2022

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.