Late Harvest

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley and Severn Publishing House.

I have read other novels by Fiona Buckley but they have always been mysteries. When I saw that this was not a mystery I was intrigued because I enjoy historical fiction. The writing in this novel is superb and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the characters develop over a long period of time. The feeling of the historical time is also very well done with the influences of the reign of George III forming the basis for the split between two communities and the way they earned their livelihood.

The story is told from the viewpoint of eighty year old Margaret "Peggy" Shawe in the year 1860 as she looks back at her life. In these tiny Exmoor villages people were born to be either of the land, farmers, or of the sea and all the related ways of making a living from the sea. As Peggy's mother often told her, land and sea don't mix; the meaning was very clear, stick to your own kind and her kind were farming folk. It was accepted as fact that Peggy would marry one of the sons of a neighboring farmer. The problem is that Peggy has met Ralph Duggan and the Duggan's are boat builders and free traders, otherwise known as smugglers. The story involves all the twists and turns fate has in store for us when we think we have our future all mapped out.

I did enjoy this new type of novel by Fiona Buckley and think it was a success. Because the story is told from Peggy's remembrances there are large portions of the novel without dialog. Sometimes those sequences seemed to go on for a long time. If you enjoy this period of British history around the 1800s to the 1860s and the lives of those evading the King's Revenuers, this will be a welcome reading experience.