Book Extract: In the Shadow of War by Adrienne Chinn

Please join me in welcoming Adrienne Chinn to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, In the Shadow of War.

One war may be over, but their fight for survival continues…

For sisters Etta, Jessie and Celie Fry, the Great War and the hardships of the years that followed have taken a heavy toll.

Determined to leave her painful past behind her, Etta heads to the bright lights of Hollywood whilst Jessie, determined to train as a doctor and use her skills to help others, is hampered by the men who dominate her profession. On the vast, empty plains of the Canadian prairies, Celie and her small family stand on the brink of losing everything.

As whispers of a new war make their way to each sister, each must face the possibility of the unthinkable happening again…

Adrienne has shared an extract from her novel with us today. We hope you enjoy it. 

*****beginning of extract*****

The following excerpt from In the Shadow of War, takes place in July 1936 in  Barcelona, Spain, where middle Fry sister, Dr Jessie Fry Khalid, has joined her journalist friend, Ruth Bellico, for a short holiday before continuing on to London to join her daughter, Shani, at her mother’s. The People’s Olympiad is about to begin, and tourists and journalists have arrived in the city to attend, oblivious to the storm of war about to break throughout the country.

*****

Hotel Colon, Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona

Late that night, after an evening wandering with Ruth down the long pedestrian street of La Rambla past shops and buildings festooned with the red flags of the socialists, the red and black flags of the anarchists, and posters announcing the Olympiad, and chatting with tourists in the queues for the food stalls hawking golden tortilla de patatas, crunchy croquettes with creamy centres, or plates of crispy fried potatoes topped with spicy tomato sauce or garlic mayonnaise, Jessie stirs sleeplessly in the comfortable bed in her hotel room. She kicks off the sheet and wanders over to the glazed doors which she has left open in the hope of catching a breeze to cool the oppressive heat.

The night is moonless, and stars glitter in the black sky. In the plaza below, there is silence, the tourists sleeping off the evening’s beers, cavas, vermouths and sangrias. Despite the buzz of excitement in the air, she couldn’t help but notice the way La Rambla split the city in two – the medieval Gothic Quarter on the east side, with its towering churches and elegant hotels, restaurants, shops and clubs; and the shacks and tenements of the working class section of El Raval on the west side.

The tourists and athletes carried a thrum of excitement with them, but beyond that, leftist street corner orators espoused their beliefs, while locals debated the reports and rumours filtering into the city from the south. She’d experienced that same nervous energy before on the streets of Cairo. It had always been the precursor to violence. That energy was like a djinni released from a magic lamp. Once it had escaped, there was no getting it back in the lamp.

#

The shrill whine of sirens jolts Jessie from a dreamless sleep. The whine resonates around her bedroom, rushing in through the open windows like a storm. She jumps out of bed and is halfway to the windows when someone hammers at her door.

‘Jessie! It’s Ruth!’

 She unlocks the door and Ruth bursts in, dressed in trousers and a blue shirt, her short, curly hair unbrushed.

‘Get dressed. Something’s going on. They’ve set off all the factory sirens.’

‘Who’s they?’

‘The left, the government, the workers … anyone who’s against the coup. They must have heard something. I think there’s going to be trouble.’

Jessie throws open the door of her wardrobe. ‘Right. I’ll only be a minute.’

Ruth shuts the bedroom door and rushes over to the balcony. Below, the camping tourists are running from the plaza like cockroaches scattering under a switched-on light, urged on by armed men and women in rough clothing and the red and black neckerchiefs of the anarchists.

Shots ring out from the balconies of the floor directly above them. Ruth jumps back into the room and slams the windows shut. ‘Oh My God.’

Jessie looks up at her from the bed where she is tying her shoe laces. ‘What’s going on?’

A bullet crashes through the bedroom window, sending splinters of glass over the floral carpet. Ruth grabs Jessie’s arm and pulls her down from the bed.

‘People are shooting at the anarchist militia in the square from the balconies above us. They’ve got machine guns. The militia are shooting back.’

The room shakes as an explosion rocks the plaza, followed by another and another.

Jessie looks over at Ruth. ‘Grenades.’

Ruth nods. ‘It looks like we’ve found ourselves in the middle of a war.’

*****end of extract*****

About Adrienne Chinn –

Adrienne Chinn was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec, and eventually made her way to London, England after a career as a journalist.

In England she worked as a TV and film researcher before embarking on a career as an interior designer, lecturer, and writer.

When not up a ladder or at the computer writing, she often can be found rummaging through flea markets or haggling in the Marrakech souk.

Her second novel, The English Wife — a timeslip story set in World War II England and contemporary Newfoundland — was published in June 2020 and has become an international bestseller.

Her debut novel, The Lost Letter, was published by Avon Books UK in 2019. Love in a Time of War, the first in a series of four books in The Three Fry Sisters series, was published in February 2022. The second in the series, The Paris Sister, was published in February 2023, and the third book in the series, In the Shadow of War, was published in March 2024.

Say hello to Adrienne via her website, Facebook, Instagram and X (Twitter.) 

In The Shadow of War is book three in the Three Fry Sisters series and was released by One More Chapter on 22nd March 2024. Click here to buy on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Waterstones, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, WHSmith and Google Books. 

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.