The Harsh Noontide
By Sara Fraser
In the summer of 1848 – the most ruinous year of the potato famine – Grainne Shonley and her husband, Con, leave the Ireland they fought so passionately to free for the promise of the New World. Arriving in Liverpool, gateway to America, the couple must struggle to survive the squalor of Paradise Alley, the most treacherous part of the docklands. In this corrupt world no one can be trusted – most especially their landlord, the sinister Tom Tracey, and his henchmen. So when their passage overseas is confirmed the Shonleys leave with relief.
As The Florida sets sail Grainne feels sure that their fortune has changed. But she hasn’t bargained for the vile conditions below deck, the tyrannical Captain Lockyer, or for the fearful night when disaster strikes the ship and she and Con are separated. Now Grainne must return to the city she despises, confronting danger and hardship in a courageous bid to find her beloved husband.
Sara Fraser is the pen-name of marine commando and foreign legionnaire Roy Clews. Fraser is the author of Tildy, The Surgeon’s Apprentice, Til Death Do us Part and The Healing Nightfall, among many others. Fraser has written a number of mysteries as well as a number of novels influenced by a life of travel and work all over the world.
