Product Description

There is consternation among the villagers of pretty Scottish borders town, Priors Ford, when a firm is interested in re-opening an old sandstone quarry. It'll be disruptive, noisy and dusty, despite bringing in some new jobs. Publican Glen organises a protest group - but when the local newspaper takes an interest in him and the story, he starts to feel very nervous indeed. When Jenny Forsyth attends a protest meeting and sees the quarry surveyor she also discovers a problem. So does the surveyor, for he and Jenny recognise each other from years back when they lived different lives. And Jenny has no wish for her friends and neighbours to hear about her past ...Clarissa Ramsay is too preoccupied to care much about the new threat facing the village. She and her husband, Kenneth, moved to the village a year earlier but Clarissa is newly widowed. But when she discovers he had a secret life she resolves to make some radical changes in her own ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4372 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
`Entertaining . . . the final twist in the tale is kept right up until the end, making this a most enjoyable read . . . a promising start to an interesting new series' --Scottish Home and Country

About the Author
Eve Houston lives in Scotland and this is her first novel. The Prior's Ford series will be a high-profile launch for Sphere books in 2008.

Customer Reviews

Pleasant, bland, inoffensive
This is apparently the first book in a series of stories based around the sleepy small Scottish village of Prior's Ford. The quiet peace of the place is threatened here by the proposed re-opening of an old quarry, which splits the community. Some villagers think it will destroy the quiet peace of the small village, others think it will bring opportunities for employment and growth for the small businesses. No, it's not a metaphor for the state of the nation or the divisions caused by the war on terror - Secrets in Prior's Ford has no deeper purpose than an episode of Emmerdale, and a pretty tame one at that.

The series promises "intrigue, passion and scandal" and there is certainly plenty of that here, but it's all played out very much in a harmless, inoffensive and gossipy manner - the wholesome model village is not exactly a hotbed of vice and corruption. Secrets there are, but they don't stay secrets long and are happily chatted about between friends or confided in with the vicar over tea and scones so that an amicable solution and accommodation can be reached without too much over-excitement. Even while fund-raising for their cause, the anti-quarry group even decide to organise a traditional village fayre, so that their opponents don't feel too left out.

Yep - village fayre's, garden parties, Easter Egg hunts - Prior's Ford is that kind of place and Secrets in Prior's Ford is that kind of novel. These are predictable, commonplace old-fashioned soap-opera style situations with bland, stock characters who never act the slightest bit like real people. The dialogue has all the contemporary naturalism of Enid Blyton with not a trace of a Scottish accent or idiom (the strongest the language gets is a single occurrence of "dratted") and everyone is a reasonable and well-adjusted individual. Even the local kids are polite, diligent, trustworthy and conscientious. Although certainly unchallenging and deeply reactionary (the wholesome little village will seem like pure heaven to readers of the Daily Mail), it's hard all the same to resist the charm and simplicity of life in Prior's Ford.

Relaxing reading
I find 'village' fiction enjoyable and this book is no exception. Clarissa is suddenly widowed and has to stand on her own feet; Alistair is an artist renting a cottage on the local impoverished laird's estate, then there's Ingrid who runs the village gift shop and Glen and Libby who run the pub - the Neurotic Cuckoo - and Sam and Marcy who have the post office and general stores. These are all well realised characters with secrets they don't want others to know. A stranger in their midst heralds change and the villagers are united and divided when a long disused quarry looks as though it may re-open. Which way will it go? Whatever the result the village will not be the same again and life changing secrets will be revealed.
The plot was easy to keep track of - I read it on the bus to and from work in 20 minute sections and had no trouble remembering where I'd got to. Village life with all its advantages and disadvantages was realistically portrayed and there were enough loose ends to show where the next book will continue the story. Long may this series last as it will certainly please the people who enjoy Miss Read and Rebecca Shaw. My only complaint was that everyone refers to the pub by its full name whereas I'm certian it would be abbreviated to simply 'The Cuckoo'. But this is still a good read.

pure fiction
Clearly Eve Houston has never visited Kirkcudbright! As someone who knows the area well, I would be delighted if she could tell me where the traffic lights mentioned on page 270 are? As a work of pure fiction this is a lightweight read, better suited to a setting in Hampshire, perhaps. The title itself, does not reflect the ancient celtic heritage to be found in the area, more home counties village green - aga saga.
It is also a mystery why, Page 226/227, Jimmy McDonald , from the council estate, is the only one who converses in an attempted dialect and he can only sustain it for a few lines. Why did I read this book? It was suggested by someone Kircudbright born and bread, as terrible fact and fiction.