Towards The Vanishing Point by Jan Turk Petrie BLOG TOUR @TurkPetrie #GuestReview @jaustenrulesok #RandomThingsTours

In the North of England in1938, two ten-year-old girls, Lily Hetherington and Stella Marsden, form a close if unlikely friendship that endures despite their wartime experiences. After the war, the two women are working as nursing auxiliaries when Lily meets male nurse Will Bagshaw. Stella begins to hear sinister rumours about the man, but the besotted Lily won’t listen to a word said against him. Can Stella make her see sense before it’s too late?

Building to a tense, dramatic climax, this is a story of friendship, love, loyalty and the ultimate betrayal.

Towards The Vanishing Point by Jan Turk Petrie was published in January 2020.

I'm delighted to welcome guest reviewer Louise Wykes to Random Things today, she's sharing her review of the book for the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour.


You can find Louise on Twitter @jaustenrulesok

Louise's Review of Towards The Vanishing Point

Towards The Vanishing Point by Jan Turk Petrie was published by Pintail Press on 1^st January 2020.  I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review and I’d also like to thank Anne Cater for agreeing to host my review.

I confess that Jan Turk Petrie is a completely new author to me so I had no idea about what to expect from this book although I was intrigued by the blurb especially as the book is recommended to fans of Daphne Du Maurier amongst other writers as I’m a lifelong fan of Du Maurier’s engaging and vividly descriptive writing style.

This is a story that follows the friendship of two young girls, Lily Hethrington and Stella Marsden who meet in the North of England in 1938 when they are teamed up together for the school’s three- legged race on sports day.  It follows the girls’ friendship through the war years and after and finally culminates in a tense court room scene in November 1957.   I have to say that for me I think the time spent on the young girls’ friendship could have been explored more deeply for me as a reader as I feel that I would have been more emotionally invested in the characters before being shown what happens to the girls as they grew into womanhood.

The narrative shifts perspective between several characters in the book and during several time periods.  Initially  I thought the narrative was moving quite slowly but after about 100 pages once Will Bagshaw had been introduced I felt that the narrative became more thrilling and electric up to the finale of the courtroom verdict and I actually had to hide the words with my hand so my eyes didn’t race to discover the final verdict which was quite exciting.

Personally for me, I think I would have liked a bit more insight as to why Lily Hethrington felt about childbirth as she did.  There is an earlier incident in the book which I think was meant to help illustrate why Lily may have had fearful first thoughts about childbirth but I didn’t feel this was explored enough in detail when Lily became a married woman.

I did ultimately enjoy this read and was interested in the historical detail and the exploration of coercive control within a relationship.  Although I usually enjoy open endings in a book I was left a little puzzled at the ending of this story and not entirely clear why it ended where it did although that may have been deliberate in order for the reader to think about the book after they have finished reading it.

I would recommend this book if you’re after a thrilling and consuming read which highlights the complexities and nuances of human relationships.

The author Jan Turk Petrie lives in the Cotswolds, S.W. England.

She is the author of the fast paced Nordic thriller series: the Eldísvík novels. All three of these novels are set in 2068 in a fictional city state just below the artic circle.

'Until the Ice Cracks' - the first of the trilogy was published in July 2018.
Volume Two - 'No God for a Warrior' was published in November 2018
The third and final volume - 'Within Each Other's Shadow' was published in April 2019

The ebook boxset - The Eldísvík Trilogy was published in August 2019

Jan's fourth novel - 'Too Many Heroes' - a gripping new post-war thriller set in the East End of London was published in August 2019.

She is currently working on her fifth book - 'Towards the Vanishing Point.'

A former English teacher with an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Gloucestershire, Jan has also written numerous, prize-winning short stories.

Twitter handle: @TurkPetrie