Wednesday 5 October 2011

Guest Review: The Deeping Secrets - Victor Watson


Today I have a guest review from the lovely Kirsty at The Overflowing Library.  Kirsty is a fab blogger and a great friend so if you've never visited her blog make sure you drop by and see her.  Thanks for letting me post this as a guest review Kirsty!  This review was originally posted on The Overflowing Library here.

April 1941

There was a series of overwhelming explosions, then a thumping of debris as scraps of wood fell heavily onto the truck-bed above their heads.  A metal wheel thudded down and buried itself in the grass close by, half a hundredweight of instant death.

When a particular train is targeted by an enemy bomber, the people of Great Deeping realise there's a spy in their midst.  Molly doesn't want to let such a thing ruin her Easter holiday.  Soon, she and her friends are occupied with looking for buried treasure.  But during their search, they stumble upon more than they bargained for . . .


Paradise Barn Series:
Paradise Barn
The Deeping Secrets

Visit Victor Watson's page on Goodreads for more information

Kirsty's Review:
The Deeping Secrets is the second book in the Paradise Barn series. The book is just as good as the first in the series drawing you in from the first page and keeping you hooked right through the end.

As I said from the very start of this book you are hooked. In the first chapter a train just coming into Deeping is bombed with the young characters caught in the middle narrowly escaping injury themselves.

The other shock is that it is also revealed that there is, living somewhere in the village, a Nazi Sympathiser who is planning on helping the Nazis when they invade and has been smuggling vital information to the Nazis via carrier pigeon (cue the dramatic dun dun dunnnn!!)

The story itself is a pleasant read. You get back to spending time with the characters you know and love from book one Abigail, Molly and Adam and meet new additions Joe and Edmund. I personally loved little Edmund, he is one of those children you want to take home, shelter from all the bad things in the world and feed chocolate cake to. I loved seeing how the friendships established in the book helped to bring him out of himself and change his little life for the better.

The final section of the story is where all the differing mysteries of the book are resolved and revealed. Again this was done in a really exciting and engaging way (especially the dramatic scenes on the train) which all added to making this book a wonderful read.

Certainly a book I would recommend both as an avid reader myself and as a history teacher. It strikes a nice balance between telling an engaging tale and keeping that story realistic to the time period in which it was set without overburdening the reader with tiny details that can slow the pace of a book and make it dull.
 
Source: I received this book from Catnip in exchange for an honest review

Other reviews of this book:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

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