Today I'm delighted to be on the blog tour for Absolution by P. A. Davies. This is a new author to me and as soon as I read the blurb I knew it was something that I really wanted to read.
Absolution begins with a hard-hitting and quite graphic prologue in which sixteen-year-old Jada witnesses the savage slaughtering of his members of his village, Nyanyar Ngun, in South Sudan by the Militia. From his hiding place in a field of maize he sees his parents killed, boys chosen to become recruits and his sister, Kiden, taken away by these evil men under the instructions of General Ode Tombura. Jada knows that he is no match for these men so he can only watch on in horror as he sees his sister disappear to an unknown fate and he knows that he has to find her - no matter what the cost.
Skip forward a year and we meet Alfred Harris in London, who is being attacked by a young man. On first impression, Harris appears to be a fragile old man, but upon closer inspection this is a man with a past, who has secrets, who has caused unimaginable suffering to others but who also carries his own sorrows. As a young man he lived in Germany and was known as Ernst, a man with close connections to Hitler, who knows first hand the devastating effects of war and human suffering.
Initially, it's not clear how these men are connected and of course, it would be wrong of me to tell you, so all I'll say is that they are both looking for forgiveness.
Absolution is an absorbing and powerful read full of characters who all have their own hidden agenda's and this makes for interesting reading as you try and work out where the story will take you next. P.A. Davies has done a wonderful job of making the characters well-rounded so that it was easy to get behind them and hope that they found what they were searching for, or got what was surely coming to them as was the case with some! It's also an extremely thought-provoking book that brings home the true horrors and shows that as a human race we are capable of appalling acts against each other and there's no sign of these atrocities coming to an end so what does that say about us, how many more innocent people have to suffer before someone takes a stand, is it even possible to stop these people and will it ever come to an end? These are just some of the many questions that I was left with after I closed this book.
With kind thanks to P.A. Davies for the review copy in exchange for an honest review and to Caroline Vincent for the invitation to take part in the blog tour.
About the author
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| Photo courtesy of P.A. Davies |
P.A. Davies
was born in Manchester, UK, a city he has lived in and around all his life. He
loves Manchester and is proud to be part of the multi-cultural, modern city
that houses two Premiership football teams and is the birthplace of many a
famous band, such as Oasis, the Stone Roses, Take That and Simply Red.
For most of
his life, he has dabbled with writing various pieces - from poems to short
fictional stories - but this was always just for fun. However, following advice
from a good friend he decided to have a go at writing a novel. Thus, his first
novel ‘Letterbox’ was conceived, a fictional take on the infamous IRA bombing
of Manchester in 1996. It took him over a year to complete but while doing so,
he found it to be one of the most satisfying and interesting paths he had ever
followed. It came as no surprise that the writing bug subsequently became
firmly embedded within him.
P.A. Davies’
second book - George: A Gentleman of the Road - was published in May 2013 and
is a true story about one of Manchester’s homeless. His third novel - The Good
in Mister Philips - is an erotic novel (arguably set to rival Fifty Shades…!)
and his fourth - Nobody Heard Me Cry (Dec. 2015) - is again a fact-based tale
about Manchester’s darker side. The thriller ‘Absolution’ (Oct. 2017) is his
fifth novel.
To label P.A.
Davies’ writings would be difficult because his works range from thrillers to
touching novels to true-to-life tales embedded in a captivating story, making
P.A. Davies an imaginative and versatile storyteller.
You can find out more about P.A. Davies and connect with him using the links below:
Don't forget to check out the rest of the blog tour with these brilliant blogs:
A brilliant review, Neats! Thanks x
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