In a departure from his popular crime fiction novels, James Oswald’s haunting Broken Ghosts tells the story of Phoebe MacDonald, a twelve-year-old girl from Fife in Scotland forced to leave everything familiar behind after the sudden and tragic death of her parents in a house fire. She is taken to Wales to live with her mother’s brother, Louis, and his wife, Maude, in an isolated house, Pant Melyn, in the hills of Ceredigion.
There are no other children her age in the surrounding area, and this only increases her isolation. As there is no school nearby, Louis and Maude consider homeschooling, but don’t seem to be in any rush to do anything about it, leaving her to her own devices for a lot of the time. When the rain lets up, she explores the surrounding woodlands and meets Gwyneth, a young girl of a similar age, though is told no one of that name actually lives nearby.
Broken Ghosts is a dual timeline novel split between 1985 when Phoebe first arrives in Llancwm, and 2023 when she returns to Wales following Maude’s death. As in the Tony McLean books, there is a subtle suggestion of something otherworldly, but nothing scary, a benign presence. This is a coming of age novel, with a strong sense of place, well-drawn characters, and long buried secrets waiting to be uncovered. As Phoebe gradually comes to terms with her grief and loneliness, she finds solace in being in the natural world, and at times seems older than her years.
Although the village of Llancwm is fictional, James Oswald has obviously based it on real places he was familiar with (he lived in the area before moving to Scotland) and this adds authenticity to the narrative. The landscape reminded me of the TV series Hinterland, which was set in Aberystwyth and the surrounding area – there was even a mention of the Devil’s Bridge waterfall.
I was already a big fan of James Oswald’s writing, but this is masterful storytelling, melancholy but also hopeful. The landscape is brought vividly to life and is almost a character in its own right. Broken Ghosts is one of the best books I have read this year, and I look forward to reading whatever this talented writer brings out next. Thanks to Wildfire and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

In Broken Ghosts, J.D. Oswald, or James Oswald as we usually know him, has written a beautiful, gently haunting coming of age novel. A stand-alone book, this is the story of how the orphaned Phoebe ‘Feebs’ MacDonald buried both her parents and was then whisked away from Fife in Scotland to rural Wales to live with her uncle Louis and aunt Maude in the Welsh woods.

Phoebe has to leave her friends behind; when she gets to Llangwm, a small village, community of situated on the Llangwm Pill off the River Cleddau in Wales she knows no-one and doesn’t, of course, speak any Welsh. There are no children of her age in the village and no nearby school that teaches in English. To all intents and purposes, she is completely isolated. Her aunt and uncle, both somewhat eccentric, though never cruel, don’t even have a television, so Phoebe is driven to finding her own entertainment. Pant Melyn, their house, is however full of books, including, oddly, a whole series of romance novels which have been her uncle Louis tells her have been sent for review. For Louis is an author, resting somewhat on the laurels of a book published some time ago which brought a little respectable fame.

It’s insufferably hard for Phoebe as she grieves the loss of both her parents and has to find a way through living with complete strangers, having no friends and then, to her horror, her aunt and uncle start discussing the possibility of home schooling. Her aunt Maude, though kindly, sees Phoebe as a helper for her vegetable garden and other household chores, but even then Maude has some eccentricities that cause Phoebe to wonder quite what she has come into.

James Oswald draws such beautifully rich characters that they come to life on the page. Phoebe’s grief is all too real and when she does what is really her only option and takes herself out of the house to go exploring in the woods it takes a while, but there’s something about the rich and varied countryside that, while it can be dangerous, is also slowly healing.

It is on the wooden bridge that Phoebe meets Gwyneth, a local girl about her own age. Gwynneth will be her guide through the forest, showing her local landmarks and filling her in on some of the local characters, including a pair of young male twins who should be avoided at all costs.

Broken Ghosts has a dual timeline, with 12 year old Phoebe in 1985 and then decades later, when she returns to Llangwm to bury her aunt Maude. Oswald deals with grief, questions of what home really means, loneliness and the mystical, natural way of nature to mend and heal. The sense of place permeates the book and this place is a character in its own right.

This is such a beautifully written story that it brings out feelings of love and empathy. There’s a soft subtlety to the suggestion of ghosts that hover in the background and as Phoebe roams, she will find out that there are dark secrets here that linger through generations until they can finally be laid to rest.

Verdict: Broken Ghosts is so beautifully written and full of the most interesting characters that the reader cannot fail to be entranced. Phoebe’s transition from child to adult has not been without its bumps and bruises, but the understanding of what home means is never closer nor more poignant than when she sits with the bees and ponders her future. Very highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
4 stars book from me. Loved the plot and the storytelling in Broken Ghosts and relatable, likable characters,. Loved every single second reading it.

It's so different from the mysteries James Oswald usually writes and it's a fascinating and poignant story. A coming of age story in a dual timelime: a teen who lost everything in a fire, her eccentric aunt and uncle who are her warden and live in a house in a forest in Wales, far away from Phoebe was born.
A magic place, a place where the person of the same age is Gwyneth who should not be real according to the adult.
A story about a mystery that Phoebe will have to solve, her coming of age and dealing with grief.
A lovely story that made me smile and moved me
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

As we edge into autumn, publishers begin to drop their spooky new releases. It can be a very busy and exciting time for book reviewers and I always enjoy reading new drops and sending my reviews and feedback to the editors. So as it has been raining all weekend I have been curled up on the chaise-longue, listening to the raindrops pattering on the windowpane, completely absorbed in a new novel, an ARC which was very kindly sent to me by the publisher, Headline.

Broken Ghosts is a wonderful novel about the effects of grief and how people mourn their dead. It isn't exactly spooky, but it is full of ghosts, in one way or another. This isn't one of those eerie ghost stories you might reach for on Halloween night. Nothing goes bump in the night here. It isn't a scary read. Instead, the ghosts in this book are the gentle spirits of the past, the long-time dead but never forgotten, or the recently dead and currently mourned.

The story begins in 1985, when twelve-year-old Phoebe returns late from a school trip to find her house in flames and both her parents dead. She is quickly taken under the wing of her uncle, her new legal guardian, who spirits her away from her life in Scotland, to live with him and his partner, Maude, in the Welsh valleys. This is a move that Phoebe isn't happy about at all, but she has no choice. In this respect, the novel perfectly illustrates the powerlessness of children, who are often pushed from pillar to post when the worst happens and they find themselves without parents, for whatever reason.

Uncle Louis and Aunt Maude are a kind, if rather eccentric couple, and Phoebe finds herself swept into their quiet rural world of gardening and bee-keeping. With the closest school miles away and her guardians' approach to home-schooling being sporadic, Phoebe is often left to her own devices, so she begins to explore the local woods. It is there that she meets a girl of her own age, called Gwyneth, - a girl who wears old-fashioned clothes and who appears and disappears without warning. When Phoebe asks her aunt about Gwyneth, she is told that no such person exists in the village. Her aunt gently suggests that perhaps Gwyneth is an imaginary friend, someone Phoebe dreamed up to console herself in her loneliness and grief, but Phoebe knows that Gwyneth is real enough and so she sets about trying to discover who she is.

The thing I liked most about this novel is that it explores all the many ways in which people can be haunted. Haunted by memories, by the past, by grief, by a lost love, by a crime unpunished, by a lost child, a lost future or opportunity, haunted by madness even. There are ghosts all around us all the time, when you think about it, its just that not everyone can see them. All of these ghosts are explored here. Two of the main characters earn their living as ghost writers, which is a rather clever play on the theme of ghosts and what they may or may not be. And yes, there is an actual spirit at the heart of the novel, so it is certainly a ghost story, but it's so much more than that too.

In some ways, the novel reads like a mystery, with Phoebe turning detective and heading to the library archives to see if she can discover more about the valley in which she lives and the people who have lived there in the past. I had never read any of J D Oswalds work before, but after reading this book it came as no surprise that he generally writes detective novels! If this is his first foray into ghostly fiction, then he's done a good job of it and I hope that he will continue to write more ghostly tales in future, perhaps with more spookiness.

Although the books is set in Wales, I found myself thinking about Strathpeffer in Scotland as I read, because there are similarities between the fictional village and the small Highland town, where nothing is forgotten and the dead can be felt in the air. No-one ever fully leaves Strathpeffer, not even me, and a part of the soul always remains behind to walk the town with ghostly steps. This novel had that same atmosphere and yearning quality about it. It's a very moving story.

Broken Ghosts has a duel narrative, so we get to see both the Phoebe of the past in 1985 and the adult version of her in 2023. Each time-jump leads neatly from the last chapter and smoothly into the next, so this isn't jarring in any way. The duel timeline has been clearly thought out and it is well executed. I very much enjoyed reading this novel, which is a moving tale of endurance, resilience and recovery from grief.

At its core, Broken Ghosts is about what happens to the ghost of the whole-heart, after that heart has been broken. How does it survive the loss, the damage, the pain? How does it recover? And how many ghostly encounters does it take to heal a heart?

Broken Ghosts is released on Thursday and is up for Pre-Order now. Happy Haunting!

This was such a haunting read, I loved the location it felt very visual and the inclusion of grief and trauma added many emotions to my reading.

This is a brave literary departure for James Oswald. It's astonishing and ambitious and without doubt his best book to date. Leaving the mean streets of Scotland behind he transposes his superb sense of place to a remote Welsh valley. Subtleties can be appreciated and tragedies mourned. The writing whilst melancholy is also warm and wise, and when one enters the mysterious places hidden from a rural idyll it feels inevitable that something very out of the ordinary is going to happen.
The author's grasp of the realities of grief and the connection between the living and the dead is sensitive, heart-warming and hypnotic.
This is a gorgeous tapestry of life as it was forty years ago in an almost forgotten backwater where twelve-year-old Phoebe thinks herself a stranger in a strange land. That summer of 1985 will change her forever.
The writing is so genuine it regularly brought tears to my eyes and the way in which the natural landscape lends itself to shaping Phoebe's future is extraordinarily poignant.
A book I will never forget.

Wow, this is a pager turner of a read! The story begins in 1985 in Scotland, Phoebe (known as Feebs) MacDonald is returning home after school to find a fire at her family home. After losing her parents, her guardian, Uncle Louis and his partner, Aunt Maude take her back to Wales to where they live in a large house in the woods near to a small village. Feebs meets a girl of her own age, Gywn and they become friends and Feebs learns about the history of the woods and the village. I found the story to be atmospheric, descriptive, haunting and it is well written. The plot is told over two timelines, the past (1985) and the present (2023). Feebs goes back to the small village in 2023 to sort out some family matters, where she rediscovers her love for the place. I loved the dynamic and how the characters developed over time - Feebs, Louis and Maude became a family.

I found this a really easy book to read. The reader is quickly swallowed up in the story of 12 year old Feebs as she tries to find her feet in a new country after a devastating fire wipes out her family and she is removed from everything familiar to her. The story is also dual time line. Then and now. Narrated by Phoebe about 40 years apart which is one of my favourite layouts for a book. It has a hint of mystery. A touch of magic and a little bit of what if. I did wonder if perhaps 12 was a little young for Phoebe's character to withstand and manage everything she did but I can forgive that one little quibble. A charming very enjoyable book which I'm happy to recommend even if you've never read any of the author's books before.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own

I am a massive fan of Mr. Oswald, having read all his Tony McLean and Constance Fairchild books, so I was keen to get my hands on this new tale – and what a tale it is. The story launches with a tragic event: Phoebe’s parents are killed in a house fire. As a result of this, Phoebe must move from Scotland to live with her scarcely known Uncle – Louis and his partner, Maude in a small village in Wales.

Throughout, it is almost possible to feel the loneliness and isolation that Pheobe experiences as a child, which is, at times, heart wrenching as she negotiates her new life without her parents or friends. There is also a tremendous sense of atmosphere – the author writes so passionately about the area, and although the village is fictional, it is clear, he is portraying real scenery. The book flits seamlessly between 1985, with Phoebe being 12, and present day with her nearing 50, which I really loved - I found myself immersed in Phoebe’s struggles to be accepted and to find peace. I became very fond of Maude with her zany ways and total acceptance of herself.

Despite the title of the book, the ghosts are subtle, and I did wonder if, by ghosts, the author was referring more to the many secrets hiding in the woods. In conclusion, this is a beautifully written story, with a successful blend of tragedy, separation and the need to belong. Very highly recommended.

JD Oswald has ventured on a diiferent path from his established crime fiction series with his latest, although there are signs of familiarity in his exceptional capacity to create offbeat and compelling characters, and the presence of the supernatural in this haunting gothic story. Young 12 year old Phoebe 'Feebs' MacDonald's life is grimly shattered into tiny pieces when she returns home from a trip to discover her parents have died in a horrific fire. Broken, flailing and disorientated by grief, she is further rattled when she learns she must go live in Wales with the unconventional author, Uncle Louis, and Aunt Maude, at their remote rustic home of Pant Melyn, packed with books, a place that could not be more different from her Edinburgh.

Leaving behind her home, school, and friends, Phoebe is resentful, furious, with the threat of home schooling hanging over her, and no-one of her age group in the tiny community. She's processing her overwhelming grief, lashing out, suffering panic attacks and unexpected floods of tears, often mirroring the non-stop sheeting rain filled days that trap her indoors. To her surprise, she finds herself taking to reading books, there is nothing else to do, other than working in the vegetable garden, whilst her uncle spends his days writing in his office. It takes a while, but Phoebe starts to find herself roaming, exploring the wilderness of mountains, rivers, forests, and valleys, a beautiful, enticing natural world, bumping into a young local girl, Gwyneth, who becomes her friend and source of local knowledge.

In a entrancing dual narrative, the kind Phoebe untangles painful old secrets and mysteries, feeling more and more at home, finding solace, as she slowly comes to terms with her grief. Encountering the magic, ghosts and spirits of the idyllic rural landscape, the buzz of the bees, curious about local history, folklore, and the locals, but who exactly is Gwyneth? Decades later, with the death of elderly Aunt Maude, an older Phoebe returns, now an academic and writer, living as a recluse in a small tenement flat in Edinburgh, with a recent broken relationship behind her. Inundated by memories, settling affairs, organising a funeral, and making a necessary visit to the bees, Phoebe has to determine who she now is and where she wants to be.

Oswald is an incredible storyteller who effortlessly draws you into his imaginative intriguing melancholic puzzle of a mystery and the original characters that he creates. I cannot tell you just how excited I am when I learn he has a new book coming out, there is no way I would ever want to miss it. No doubt his many fans are likely to love this, and I would urge new readers to try this too. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Any one who has ever visited my blog pages before will know that I am quite a fan of JD Oswald's (aka James Oswald) mainstream crime fiction series featuring Inspector McLean. I say mainstream with a heavy application of inverted commas as Mr O has a tendency to take his stories a little outside of the everyday and introduce so more ... mystical, or otherworldy elements, something I very much approve of. Now, in Broken Ghosts, he has strayed very far from the path of crime fiction, although there are still echoes of the otherworldly in this haunting tale of loss, grief, and new beginnings, a sort of coming of age story for his tale's protagonist, Phoebe MacDonald.

From the very start of this book there is a sense of impending tragedy. It is a very simple opener, a group of pre-teens on a school outing to Edinburgh which hits more than the odd hitch and ends in overwhelming tragedy for poor Phoebe, with the loss of both of her parents in a house fire. Had circumstances been just slightly different, she feels she may have been able to save them, a fact that adds an extra layer pain to her grief, but that is nothing when compared to the fact that her whole life is about to change. Uprooted from her Coupar home and made to move to mid-Wales with her barely known Uncle Louis and his partner Maud, there is no way that Phoebe can begin to comprehend just different her summer will be. For one thing, there are no children her age in the village. For another, her new home is so remote, so traditional and unlike her own home, that it will take some considerable adjusting to. Her Aunt and Uncle have some very strange routines, at least in the eyes of a twelve year old girl, and feeling more an more isolated, she takes to exploring the woods around their cottage, and in doing so begins to expose some long buried secrets.

There is an air of melancholy that feeds through this book from the very start. To be expected given the tragic way in which Phoebe's story begins. JD Oswald has done a brilliant job in creating that sense of isolation, giving readers a vivid impression of the remote nature of Louis and maud's cottage and the very traditional village way of life that you might expect from a tiny welsh settlement. The nearest major town is Aberystwyth which, in fairness, in 1985 when the majority of the book is set, is far from the kind of cosmopolitan centre Phoebe may have experienced when visiting somewhere like Edinburgh, and that feeling of bewilderment, that inexplicable fear and anger that comes facing a future that is so far from what Phoebe had imagined really screams from the page.

There is a real sense of place that you get from the book, and although the village itself is fictional, you can tell that the author has a real feel for the area, drawing on real towns, villages and scenery to give the narrative that sense of authenticity. A number of local references made me smile, as did Phoebe's outsider perspective on the parochial feeling village community where everybody knows their neighbours. That shared history that can only come from generations of families inhabiting that same small world. There are some real characters in this story, with Uncle Louis and Aunt Maud being chief amongst the people who will come to shape Phoebe's life, but all served to inform the unsettling story which lies just beneath the surface. This is to be a summer of discovery for Phoebe, and as much as this is about her need to accept her fate and find her new path in life, there is also a mystery to be solved, even if most people don't know it yet. Llancwm has a dark history and for all the wonderful ghostly folk tales Louis spins for Phoebe, there is a strange thread of truth to them all too.

I really liked Phoebe as a character. I think the author struck the right balance in her many mood swings, from rage to tears to acceptance, portraying the move from boredom and reluctant participation in her new life, to a determination to uncover the secrets of the forest and her new, mysterious, friend, Gwyneth, really well. I liked her tenacity and her bouts of fearlessness, her kind spirit, even when some may not have deserved it. There were times when it felt she was older than her twelve years, but then that is partly to be expected given what she has experienced, and, speaking as someone who had an old soul from an early age, not so implausible. Her temper tantrums when unable to have what she wants certainly rang true, as did her retreat into books. Therein lies another secret, one that definitely brought a smile to my face. With moments of real emotion, some of tension and threat, and an undercurrent of the otherworldly, I felt myself go through a raft of emotions as I read, but all of them drawing me further into the book and Phoebe's story.

The book has a dual timeline, partly set in the present day where an adult Phoebe is called back to Llancwm to deal with matters after the passing of her Aunt Maud, and also looking back to that fateful summer of 1985 when everything in her life was to change. Despite what the title of the book ay suggest, the ghosts in this book are much more subtle, more a discovery of secrets, and laying of the past to rest than overt spooks and spectres, so if you have come looking for a scarefest, you won't find that here. It may be melancholic and mournful in tone at times, but there is also a sense of hope that builds throughout the story, and in spite of all the tragedy, some really heartwarming and tender moments as the narrative turns towards the calming and peaceful spirit of the natural world.

So, yes. This is very different to what you may have come to expect from this author, but it is a beautifully written story and one I'd heartily recommend.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5. I really enjoyed this book, a clever story with a touch of supernatural. Mr Oswald has a nice, easy writing style that draws you in and paints pictures in which you can immerse yourself.

I enjoyed the dual timeline and how the story would flick between present day and back to her childhood. It allowed me to get a better understanding of how the story came to be.

It was definitely a difficult read seeing a child lose her parents at such a young age and the struggles she goes through being thrown into a new world with relatives she barely knows.

I adore a home and belonging book and this hit the nail on the head! Most characters were very likeable and the story has a decent plot to it.

I'm so sorry, but I just didn't connect with this protagonist. She didn't feel authentic teen, but that's just my opinion. I'm sure others will love Phoebe and her story. It was also very difficult to read as the text was littered with numbers throughout. I hope the publisher sorts that out before publication.
I will post the blurb on my blog in place of a review.
Thank you for the opportunity to read an early copy.

Haunting and magical rolled into one! I loved the split timeline and the characters! I loved it!
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC copy!

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

Yet another book that was right up my alley a bit of a mystery crossed with time hopping. I like the way the story went back and from the present to the past from the view of a 12 year old to the view of a 50 year old..... I love the way the author manages to present the mind of a child who loses her parents and has to go live with relations that she doesn't know....andnhiw things developed over her time staying with them.....a ghost story with a mix of trauma and mystery....

I found there were a few questions that were left unanswered, and I didn't like the way the book just seemed to abruptly ended that's why it never made it a 5 star read for me

This isn't the first book I've read by J. D. Oswald, but it's definitely the one I've enjoyed the most. The story itself was enjoyable, the characters were all likeable and I enjoyed the themes that ran throughout it - themes of home and belonging. It was a very well written novel, with cracking prose and chapters that weren't a slog to get through!

This flits nicely back and forth in time.
It's definitely a book that had me wondering who, and what.
Right to the end.
I was charmed by Maude, as we're lots of others it seem.
A lovely sense of location and small village life where everybody is tangled in everyone's life.