The Warning Bell (Charnwood) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Tom Macaulay (Author)

Book Description

Series: Charnwood | Publication Date: December 2009

Iain Madoc should be a happy man. Having just successfully sold his business, he can look forward to an exciting new chapter in his life with his beautiful wife and teenage daughter. But one thing holds him back. His father shunned him as he was growing up, and the old man's coldness still causes deep pain. His father spent the war ferrying SOE agents across the channel into occupied France, and Iain knows that his change in personality dated from a mission in 1944 that ended in disaster, with his father barely making it home. Now, on her death-bed, Iain's mother gives him a clue about what happened on that fateful night, and Iain sets off for the tiny Breton village of St Cyriac determined to discover the truth. At first the villagers are welcoming, remembering his father as a hero, but as he delves deeper into the past, Iain finds that the official history hides a darker, more complex story and some people will kill to keep it buried. And as he nears the final, extraordinary revelation, Iain realizes that he has unleashed terrible forces that might destroy them all.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd; Large type edition edition (December 2009)
• ISBN-10: 184782921X
• ISBN-13: 978-1847829214
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mountain of tragic deceptions, August 30, 2010

By 

Lance Mitchell (Hampshire, UK, Northern Hemisphere, Planet Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Warning Bell (Hardcover)

Set mostly in a small fishing village, St Cyriac, on the coast of Brittany, this is the tale of a man in search of the tragic WWII events that led to his life-long rejection by his Father.

George Madoc was the skipper of an RAF rescue craft. Amongst her other duties, the sleek, fast, three-engined boat, known simply as 6548, was tasked with ferrying secret agents across the English Channel. George feels very uneasy about one of these agents, an ass ...more A mountain of tragic deceptions

Set mostly in a small fishing village, St Cyriac, on the coast of Brittany, this is the tale of a man in search of the tragic WWII events that led to his life-long rejection by his Father.

George Madoc was the skipper of an RAF rescue craft. Amongst her other duties, the sleek, fast, three-engined boat, known simply as 6548, was tasked with ferrying secret agents across the English Channel. George feels very uneasy about one of these agents, an assassin, code-named Lucien, but we don't find out why until much later.

Sixty years later, George's son, Iain, takes early retirement and looks forward to a new life with his wife, also leaving her work behind for a quiet life, and his daughter.

Sadly, Iain's mother dies very early in his retirement, but she bequeaths a small case containing some vital clues regarding the distance that George has maintained for all those years between himself and his puzzled son.

Iain has a compelling need to get to the bottom of the mystery, and sets off on an almost obsessive quest.

Despite all the barriers that the survivors of those times and their descendants place in Iain's way, the horrible truth is slowly revealed as one turns the pages.

The reader is swept along by the merciless currents of this story, and I could not put the book down for a moment as I read the last hundred-and-something pages. So, be warned! Allow yourself sufficient time to read the final chapters, or you may burn the supper or forget to pick up the kids from school, or somesuch!

An enthralling read.