The Beachcomber
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Another page-turning story of tragedy and triumph from the No.1 bestselling author
In the summer of 1952, two lonely people arrive in the pretty seaside hamlet of West Bay. Strangers coming from very different backgrounds, they are there for the same reasons: to find peace of mind and the chance to start a new life.
Tom Arnold has abandoned all his possessions and walked away from a highly paid job. A year ago, he had a wife and two beautiful children, when suddenly his world was turned upside-down. The car he was driving with his family was deliberately run off the road high above the cliffs. He was the only survivor. The driver – who Tom is sure intended to kill them all – has never been found.
Kathy Wilson has tried to cling on to her zest for life through times of pain and loneliness. Recovering from her divorce, she seeks comfort in the arms of other men. But a shocking, revealing row with her mother is the final straw, and when she inherits a rundown house in West Bay, she flees to Dorset.
For both Tom and Kathy, it seems there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yet even now, someone means to undermine their search for happiness. People are jealous. And a brutal killer is still on the loose… Suddenly West Bay is no longer the peaceful place it seemed…
Reviews
Praise for Josephine Cox:
'Cox's talent as a storyteller never lets you escape the spell' Daily Mail
'Impossible to resist' Woman's Realm
'Driven and passionate' Sunday Times
About the author
Josephine Cox was born in Blackburn, one of ten children. At the age of sixteen, Josephine met and married her husband Ken, and had two sons. When the boys started school, she decided to go to college and eventually gained a place at Cambridge University. She was unable to take this up as it would have meant living away from home, but she went into teaching – and started to write her first full-length novel. She won the ‘Superwoman of Great Britain’ Award, for which her family had secretly entered her, at the same time as her novel was accepted for publication.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1950s England, this American debut from prolific British author Cox (Jinnie, etc.) who is the reigning queen of the London Times bestseller lists revolves around the lives of two lovers brought together by fate. A year after his car plunged off a cliff, killing his wife and two children, Tom Marcus still mourns their deaths and is determined to find the murderer who rammed their car. Leaving his London life behind, he makes a new start in the seaside village of West Bay, where he meets Kathy Wilson, a woman he has seen from afar twice before in London. Kathy is also escaping her London life, as well as a string of unreliable boyfriends; her selfish sister, Samantha; and her obnoxious mother, Irene, who is so unrealistically evil she puts Cruella De Ville to shame. Inevitably, Tom's desire to exorcise his past demons and find his family's murderer stalls his love affair with Kathy, which leads to a mid-book slump. However, an unexpected final twist and a dramatic conclusion make up for the slow-moving plot.
