Community Minded
The Mersey Mothers by Sheila Riley is a compelling historical novel set in 1953. It is part of the Reckoners Row series but can be read as a stand-alone.
The novel has a powerful opening that grabbed my attention immediately and kept me questioning and returning, in my mind, to the start throughout. It is set in 1947 before jumping to 1953 but I wanted to know the truth about what had really happened and who had done what?
Reckoners Row is a place of community. We see life happen on a microcosm with love and care juxtaposed against deep-seated rivalries. We witness the effects when a jealousy gets out of hand.
Family is important. Family is not always blood ties but those who love us.
Education is the key to lifting lives out of poverty. We see this as we follow a sixteen year old with her hairdressing apprenticeship.
There is a cold case murder to solve. Is a life innocent? Or guilty? Some folks know more than they are letting on.
1953 sees the characters, along with the reader, eagerly anticipating Elizabeth II’s coronation. Interestingly a character receives a television to watch the event, just as my Dad and his family got their first television to watch it too. I felt a connection with the character.
All the characters are well drawn, likable and realistic. I ’felt’ a part of their community as I ‘shared’ in their lives.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Mersey Mothers and cannot wait to read more by Sheila Riley.
I received a free copy from Rachel’s Random Resources and Boldwood via Net Galley. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.
JULIA WILSON
The Mersey Mothers
Liverpool 1953
January sees the dawn of the Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation year as the mothers of Reckoners Row unite in preparation for the celebration of the new Queen.
Meanwhile Evie Kilgaren is dreaming of her summer wedding to Danny Harris, but trouble looms for Skinner & Sons with a new rival trying to put them out of business, but no-one knows why….
Ada Harris is summoned to the bedside of her estranged husband, who, in his dying moment confesses to a deadly secret – he knows who really murdered Evie’s mam Rene all those years ago and the consequences are far reaching.
Has an innocent man been jailed and is there still a murderer walking carefree?
Will Evie get the happy-ever-after she so longs for with Danny? And will The Mersey Mothers unite and still be friends?
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Author Bio –
Sheila Riley wrote four #1 bestselling novels under the pseudonym Annie Groves and is now writing the Reckoner’s Row series under her own name. She has set it around the River Mersey and its docklands near to where she spent her early years. She still lives in Liverpool.
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