Hardback: 307 pages
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction,Romance, Mystery, Thriller,
Publisher: John Murray 2025
Source: Tywyn Public Library
First Sentence: “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”
Setting: England
Review Quote: 'Excellent . . . a vivid, forceful love story which plays out at the pace of a thriller' Irish Times
Favourite Quote: “It’s strange, the patchwork stories we tell someone when we want them to catch up, a shortcut to knowing us, as if such a thing were possible.”
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2025), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Audiobook (2025)
My Opinion:
Having heard nothing but praise for 'Broken Country' I was delighted when my library reservation was ready to collect. From the first page I felt this was going to be a read to get fully immersed in.
A dual timeline story that follows the lives of the three protagonists Beth, Frank and Gabriel. We first meet them as youngsters in 1955 when their lives first become entangled. By 1968 when they catch up with each other again, after many years, the dynamics have changed somewhat and a murder is committed.
An emotional read, but beware it deals with the grief of losing a child. Although it is also a romantic story which will tug at your heart strings as passion is intertwined with grief. Highly recommended.
Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.
A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.
Author Profile:
Courtesy of Goodreads
Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. Under the name Clare Empson, she published two domestic noir thrillers, Him and Mine, that were published in the UK and Germany. She has always loved The Go Between by LP Hartley and Broken Country is a nod to it, featuring a forbidden love affair with catastrophic repercussions. Broken Country is her US debut.
Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites: