Allen & Unwin Island of Secrets book Fiction English Paperback 400 pages

A thrilling, dramatic and completely engaging tale of love, hope, intrigue and revenge on the island of Crete, as grandmother, mother and daughter unlock the secrets of tragic events during the Nazi occupation.

'As I remember, the story started at about six o'clock in the morning on the fourteenth of September, 1943...'All her life 37-year-old London-born Angie has been intrigued by her mother's secret past. Now, planning her own wedding she feels she must visit the remote Cretan village her mother grew up in, despite her objections. Unbeknownst to Angie her elderly grandmother, Maria, is dying. She wants to unburden herself of the terrible story that she will otherwise take to the grave.It's the story of the time of the German occupation of Crete during the Second World War, of horror, of courage and of the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her children and of how you learn to go on in the aftermath of tragedy. And it's the story of bitter secrets that broke the family apart, and of three enchanting women who come together to heal wounds that have damaged two generations.If you loved Victoria Hislop's The Island and the novels of Santa Montefiore and Rosanna Ley, you will fall completely in love with this novel.

Patricia lived in the village of Amiras in Crete where the book is set. She was inspired to write when she unearthed a machine gun in her garden - one used in the September 1943 massacre, and much of the novel is based on real stories told to her by the oldest women of Amiras - women who've never spoken of their experiences before. Patricia is working on her second novel, set in Rhodes during World War Two, and spends much of her time in Greece.