The Beachcomber - Josephine Cox

== THE BEACHCOMBER ==

=== JOSEPHINE COX ===

I have just finished reading 'The Beachcomber' by Josephine Cox; it is an easy reading book, nothing too heavy and a decent holiday read.The book is a mix of romance and murder mystery and, although somewhat predictive, isn't a bad read.


=== The Author ===

Josephine Cox was born into poverty in a cottonmill house in Blackburn, one of ...
...and had two sons. When the boys started school, she decided to go to college and eventually gained a place at Cambridge University.
Unable to take up this place as it would have meant living away from home, she went into teaching and set about renovating a derelict council house as the family home, coping with the problems of her own mother's unhappy home life while writing her first full-length novel .

Josephine has now given ... more

THE BEACHCOMBER

JOSEPHINE COX

I have just finished reading 'The Beachcomber' by Josephine Cox; it is an easy reading book, nothing too heavy and a decent holiday read.The book is a mix of romance and murder mystery and, although somewhat predictive, isn't a bad read.

The Author

Josephine Cox was born into poverty in a cottonmill house in Blackburn, one of ten children. At the age of sixteen, she met and married her husband Ken, and had two sons. When the boys started school, she decided to go to college and eventually gained a place at Cambridge University.
Unable to take up this place as it would have meant living away from home, she went into teaching and set about renovating a derelict council house as the family home, coping with the problems of her own mother's unhappy home life while writing her first full-length novel .

Josephine has now given up teaching in order to write full time.

The Story

The story is set in the early 1950's as two people- each with a dream, each lonely in different ways - move into West Bay, a small seaside village in Dorset to start a new life and adjust to the slow pace of small-town life.

Kathy Wilson arrives at West Bay and dreams of turning the derelict Barden House she has inherited into a home where she can rebuild her life and in find the happiness that her father had found there.
As the summer stretches before her, she watches her dream take shape as the cottage becomes her home but she also learns that there is a story connected with the cottage.

From her window Kathy is inquisitive about the lonely man who wanders on the beach below her window day and night.
His name is Tom Arnold, and he too has arrived at West Bay looking for refuge and a place to hide when the life he knew was brutally destroyed by tragedy a year earlier.

Eventually the couple meet, having made by then mutual friends in the village.
There is an instant attraction between them but their romance evolves very slowly, as neither of them is ready to confide in the other about their past, they see each other on a casual basis, finding comfort in each other, and eventually, and predictively, they fall in love.
I'm afraid that sparks didn't fly when Kathy and Tom met, their relationship is lukewarm at the best. To me it seems that they are more intrigued by one another than attracted to one another, but suddenly they are declaring eternal love to each other- there is never any real emotion shown.

Sudden, unlikely plot developments occur throughout the novel, and some of the characters involved in these developments lack depth, and motives behind thor actions are never fully explained. We have a mixture of unbelievably wicked characters and sickeningly sweet ones.

I found that the plot moved fairly slowly as we got introduced to the characters but began to get more interesting as the plot thickened.

There was also some interesting and realistic dialogue. It was through their dialogues that we could get a glimpse into the minds of the characters. Every character had their own speech patterns and accents.

I did enjoy backdrop of the town of West Bay , there were some good descriptions of the harbour, beach and the shops that lined up along the streets.

A tighter plot would have made this book better, but it was an easy and fast read that didn't involve too much thinking Perfect book to take with you on a holiday or on a plane. Sweet and tame love story with a bit of mystery rolled into it.

Summary: An entertaining and supsensful murder mystery
 

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