Welcome back all! Today, it’s my turn on the blog tour for Signs Of Life by Chris Towndrow. It is up late due to a medical issue with my dad, but it’s here. Thanks to Heather Fitt and Chris Towndrow for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Arizona, 1878. When long-time widower Earl Johnson finds an injured deaf youth on the prairie, he agrees to help the boy as compensation for not being there to save his own wife and baby from a Mojave raiding party years earlier.
He lodges the boy with a local widow, Laura, whose daughter is deaf. Soon, sign language and shared loss deepen their friendship and begin his healing.
But just when Earl believes his life is back on track and he is ready to embrace love for this new woman, he learns the truth about his lost family.
As his dark past threatens to return, Earl must face his own guilt and prejudice or risk losing everything all over again.
Can Earl overcome his past mistakes and face down danger?
Will Laura’s kindness and faith be repaid?
Can the boy’s mistakes be fixed?
Will love prevail?
One thing I don’t read a lot of is Westerns. But Signs Of Life drew me by the blurb. So I was interested to see what it was all about.
Chris Towndrow instantly transported me back to the Old West. The descriptions were so vivid that I felt like I was there, with Earl. A man who lost his wife and baby son to an Indian raid and has become disillusioned with life. Along with his friend, he finds a boy in the desert. Earl isn’t too enthusiastic about helping him, especially after they discover he is also deaf. They take the boy to the safety of a widowed woman, Laura, and her daughter, who is also deaf.
As the story unfolds, we see Earl slowly changing from the grumpy disillusioned man he was into something totally alien to him. We see him battle his personal prejudices as well as the ones that become apparent from the townsfolk. The character development is excellent. Earl is a great character, and I did happen to get invested on him as the pages flew by.
Everything about this book had me immersed in the story. Nothing jarred me back to real life. The authenticity of the dialogue, the descriptions, and the characters all held me right there. I really enjoyed the romance in the story. It was so nice to see the transformation in Earl.
A western with heart that had me invested in the characters and the outcome, too!
Author Bio
Chris Towndrow has been a writer since 1991.
He began writing science fiction, inspired by Asimov, Iain M Banks, and numerous film and TV canons. After a few years creating screenplays across several genres, in 2004 he branched out into playwriting and has had several productions professionally performed. This background is instrumental in his ability to produce realistic, compelling dialogue in his books.
His first published novel was 2012’s space opera “Sacred Ground”. He then changed focus into “hard” sci-fi books, and the Enna Dacourt pentalogy was completed in 2023.
He has always drawn inspiration from the big screen, and 2019’s quirky romantic black comedy “Tow Away Zone” owes much to the film canon of the Coen Brothers. This has been his most well-received book to date, and spawned two sequels in what became the “Sunrise trilogy”.
His first historical fiction novel, “Signs Of Life”, was published by Valericain Press in 2023.
In 2023, Chris returns to his passion for writing accessible humour and will devote his efforts to romantic comedies. The first of these scripts is currently in development.
Chris lives on the outskirts of London with his family and works as a video editor and producer. He is a member of the UK Society of Authors.
Visit his website at: https://www.christowndrow.co.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TowndrowBooks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/towndrowbooks
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