I recently received the first 3 chapters of ‘The Devil’s Claw” by Lara Dearman courtesy of Trapeze, Orion Publishing Group. Set in beautiful Guernsey, this little snippet definitely has more than enough to keep you watching for its fall publication. The locale is quickly established by descriptive passages that bring the island & its inhabitants to life.

MC Jenny Dorey came home about a year & a half ago to work at The Guernsey News. Something made her leave London. Her back story is not revealed yet but could it be related to the threatening emails she receives on a regular basis?

The cost of housing led to her moving back in with her widowed mother. One Saturday night, she is assigned to cover a community bonfire & fireworks display & both women are enjoying the festivities until they hear a scream. After leaving the site, Jenny soon comes across a jogger who’s found a young woman on the beach. She’s very wet, very beautiful & very dead.

A separate passage gives us a flashback to a young boy in post war Guernsey. Every day he suffers the taunts & attacks of school bullies. They’re only too happy to remind him he’s the product of his mother’s affair with a German soldier.

The blurb throws out a few intriguing hints of characters & events to come & I look forward to the book’s arrival in September.