Scan barcode
snoakes7001's review
5.0
If you've read a book by James Long before then you know three things about him:
- He's fascinated by history
- He loves a rollicking good yarn
- He's an incurable romantic
Silence and Shadows ticks all those boxes and more. Our unlikely hero, Patrick, was a successful rock star but following a personal tragedy he turned his back on the wild life and returned to his first love, archaeology. He's the director of a dig in a field earmarked for a housing development and it's his first time back out in the real world. As his team dig and start to peel away the past, so too do Patrick's layers of self-protection gradually unfurl as he opens himself up to his new companions.
Interspersed with Patrick's story is that of the Saxon Queen, the subject of a haunting local folk song which a villager sings in the pub one night. As the archaeologists piece together her history from the finds, the reader has the advantage of knowing the true events.
It's an evocative, haunting and ultimately heart-warming read with characters you can't fail to love.
- He's fascinated by history
- He loves a rollicking good yarn
- He's an incurable romantic
Silence and Shadows ticks all those boxes and more. Our unlikely hero, Patrick, was a successful rock star but following a personal tragedy he turned his back on the wild life and returned to his first love, archaeology. He's the director of a dig in a field earmarked for a housing development and it's his first time back out in the real world. As his team dig and start to peel away the past, so too do Patrick's layers of self-protection gradually unfurl as he opens himself up to his new companions.
Interspersed with Patrick's story is that of the Saxon Queen, the subject of a haunting local folk song which a villager sings in the pub one night. As the archaeologists piece together her history from the finds, the reader has the advantage of knowing the true events.
It's an evocative, haunting and ultimately heart-warming read with characters you can't fail to love.
kristi_asleep_dreaming's review
4.0
Back cover skewed my expectations of this one a bit, although I suppose only a fantasy reader like me would interpret literally the bit about the long-dead woman being still "very much alive". Not that I regret reading it; it was emotional and compelling.
I was particularly caught by the underlying sense that the world really is full of genuinely nice people... CD, Dozer, Bobby, the German girl, the cameraman and the limo driver. Everyone was so ready to help Patrick, as soon as his shell cracked open enough to let them. Even Little and the Evil Music Company didn't take away from that.
I was particularly caught by the underlying sense that the world really is full of genuinely nice people... CD, Dozer, Bobby, the German girl, the cameraman and the limo driver. Everyone was so ready to help Patrick, as soon as his shell cracked open enough to let them. Even Little and the Evil Music Company didn't take away from that.
More...