So excited to announce that my latest e-book The Double Act will be published today – however it will probably only be available tomorrow, August 1st.
It may seem as you start reading that this is going to be a love story, a story maybe of thwarted love, and you may think you can guess which way it will go. However there is a dark side, which gradually becomes apparent as the story progresses.
The main characters of The Double Act are a group of friends who live in the small seaside town of Easthope; they were friends at school and have remained close ever since. Genet and Lance have a small hotel and Lance is also a teacher at a local sixth form college. He has a large family of four sisters and a brother but Genet was brought up by an aunt after her mother died shortly after she was born, her father unknown. Genet and Lance have been friends forever, and have been married for over ten years. Chrissie, divorced and bringing up a young son, has a bookshop in the town, Toni is a health worker and juggles her busy professional life with her family of four while her husband works long hours as a teacher, Monique is a lecturer and researcher in the Coastal and Oceanic Hydrographic Department at the nearby university, Lyndsey who trained as a nursery nurse helps out in the hotel and bookshop, and Rina and Keith who have a young son too, are struggling along as their jobs become more and more precarious as the firms they work for downsize.
A new couple join this group of friends; Dr Herrick and his wife come from South Africa, he is on a two-year contract at the University, also in the Coastal and Oceanic Hydrographic Department. His wife, Pamela, a wheelchair user who stays at homes, is the one who is initially drawn into the circle of friends. The novel opens on a miserable day in early February when Genet who is rushing to get ready for a hotel full of guests accidentally locks herself out. What happens next alters her life for ever, and the novel traces the events of the next six months until a horrific conclusion far away from the cosy world of little Easthope.
This is a very different novel from any other I have written, but as usual, I look forward to hearing your comments!
A new cover:
Lois Elsden 