The Shadow of War

Little Gloston, a postcard perfect village in Lincolnshire, England.

Danny Shaw has little time for school but lots of time for stealing apples from farmers' orchards and hanging out with his friends. It's 1933 and life is simple for him, even if his parents seem worried when they listen to the radio. His father Stan, the strongest man in the village, had fought in the Great War, and he carries the scars and fear of battle with him daily.

Ladenburg, Germany, 1933.

Manfred Brehme is living in a Germany that has turned towards Hitler and the Nazis.

He lives with a dominating father, and a mother who is slowly turning inward. The night the Reichstag burns down, a fire is lit within Manfred when he sees an uninhibited Hitler Youth ransack Jewish businesses in the town. They represent an escape from a repressive home life. His father, the chief of police, does not want him to join, but each day sees the further erosion of his power.

War is brewing, and life will soon change forever for Danny and Manfred, who both become soldiers fighting against each other, and for very different reasons.

The Shadow of War is the first book in the Danny Shaw / Manfred Brehme Trilogy, which follows the lives of two boys that are destined meet at the battle of El Alamein. Only one of them will walk away...