The Betrayal (The Guernsey Novels #6) – Anne Allen

An interesting story set in both the past and almost present day. Covering the Nazi occupation of Guernsey in World War II and the unresolved issues of a mystery of a stolen Renoir painting. When a suspected suicide occurs in present times connecting both incidents our characters work hard to uncover the truth and the facts of what happened in the past to find closure in the future.

I really enjoyed the storyline of the book and I thought the cross over of going back and forth between past and present throughout the book was very neatly done. The author thoroughly did her research. If you like history, romance, crime and a touch of the paranormal then this is the book for you.

Meet the Author - Anne Allen

My inspiration for The Betrayal, Book 6 in The Guernsey Novels.

The Betrayal’, like the 5^th book, ‘Echoes of Time’, is dual-time, with chapters set during WWII and the present day. The events I describe during the Occupation are based on fact, but the characters are fictional.

The first inspiration for this story was the deportation of Jews from Guernsey by the Germans during WWII. There was only a handful on the island and not long after the Occupation in 1940, they were singled out for more onerous treatment than other islanders. Eventually they had businesses and property confiscated before, in 1942, being sent to concentration camps. None returned. It is now considered a shameful blot on the island’s history, but the then local government was powerless to resist their German ‘masters’.

On a brighter note, the second inspiration was the artist Renoir. He spent the summer of 1883 in Guernsey painting numerous versions of a particular bay, Muelin Huet, amongst others. At least one of these paintings is in a museum. I joined these two known events to produce ‘The Betrayal’.

Leo Bichard is a prominent businessman whose French grandmother was a Jew, although both his parents were Christians. His family have never mentioned their ancestry but, unfortunately for Leo, someone tells the Germans, and he is deported with other Jews to concentration camps and does not return.

A matter of days before the Germans arrive, Leo sends his beloved wife, Teresa, and child to England and he stays to defend his property and stand alongside his fellow islanders. However, the Germans soon impose severe restrictions on the population and Leo is forced to close his business and months later his house is taken over by soldiers and he has no choice but to live with his housekeeper in her small cottage.

When Teresa returns after the war, she finds her home wrecked and the family’s valuables, including an extensive art collection, missing. One of those was a treasured family painting by Renoir. Learning she is a widow, she returns heartbroken to live with her family in England.

In 2010 Nigel and his twin Fiona, locals who have lived in London since university, return to Guernsey and buy a long-established antiques shop. A year later, during a refit, they find a hidden stash of paintings, including what appears to be a Renoir. Days later, Fiona finds Nigel dead, an apparent suicide. Refusing to accept the verdict, a distraught Fiona employs a detective to help her discover the truth.

Searching for the true owner of the painting brings Fiona close to someone who helps to heal her broken heart. But there are important questions to answer before she can lay her brother's ghost to rest —

Who betrayed Leo? Who knew about the stolen Renoir? And are they prepared to kill – again?

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Anne Allen lives in Devon, by her beloved sea. She has three children and her daughter and two grandchildren live nearby. Her restless spirit has meant a number of moves which included Spain for a couple of years. The longest stay was in Guernsey for nearly fourteen years after falling in love with the island and the people. She contrived to leave one son behind to ensure a valid reason for frequent returns.

By profession Anne was a psychotherapist but long had the itch to write. Now a full-time writer, she has written The Guernsey Novels, the sixth having been published on 20^th October 2017.

Echoes of Time (The Guernsey Novels Book 5) By Anne Allen

Natalie moves into her dream cottage. The cottage had been modernised and rebuilt after a fire had destroyed the original cottage. Although unique and a beautiful place to live in Guernsey, the cottage itself is quite isolated and secluded, so when strange things start to happen when she moves into the cottage, which look like ghostly goings on, and Natalie finds out that the previous owner disappeared under mysterious circumstance she decides to look into the story to try and find out what is the cause of the hauntings from the past.

Set in the modern day and during the Second World War this is a beautifully told story, this is not just a ghost story, it also about a forbidden romance, a love story added together with mystery and suspense. There is not a dull moment in this story from start to finish and you find yourself caught up in the sad and haunting emotions of the book. 

Meet the Author - Anne Allen

About Me – Anne Allen

It’s a lovely treat to be able to write about myself rather than writing a book. Just have to remember this is fact not fiction☺

I thought it would be an idea to focus on how I became a writer and the background to my first book, Dangerous Waters, which metamorphosed into book one of The Guernsey Novels. So here goes . . .

I’ve always had an ‘itch’ in the back of my head to write a book and friends had for years told me that I should.  This was probably more to do with the fact that my life could not be described as boring! I did, in fact, start to write my life story but somehow just couldn’t get in to it. I may have another go one day when I no longer have to protect the guilty!  Ironically my first stab at ‘real’ writing was an entry into a national competition run by Prima magazine a few years ago. They wanted a 500 word true-life story describing a life-changing event. My mother ‘pushed’ me into entering, thinking it was a fiction piece they wanted and thought it would encourage me to get on with my novel. Anyway, from being a reluctant entrant I emerged as the winner and collected £500 of M&S vouchers. Not bad for starters, I thought, with my eye on the bigger picture of novel writing. I was encouraged to realise I could write and so began my journey as a novelist.

This happened about nine years ago, at a time in my life when I could finally sit down, pen in hand, and write. I was a single mother of three and, together with my day job as a psychotherapist, was kept pretty busy. Now, not only had the birds flown the nest but I was about to become a grandmother. Talk about new beginnings☺ My book’s gestation was six months and my granddaughter was born three months later. However, I didn’t know then that it would take another six years to raise my baby to independence and emergence into the outside world . . .

I was born in Rugby but learnt early on that I was drawn to be 'beside the seaside'. My father was from the lovely island of Anglesey, North Wales, and every summer we would visit my grandparents who ran a village shop in Rhosneigr, a short walk from a fantastic beach. It was idyllic for children and as an adult I ventured around the country, my own children in tow, looking for the perfect home by the sea. After living in Scotland, Devon, Guernsey and Spain, I'm now settled in Devon again, to be near my daughter and two small grandchildren. But I still have dreams of a holiday home somewhere warm, like Spain. We can always dream, can't we? ☺

Dangerous Waters is set on the beautiful island of Guernsey and is a romantic mystery. The story covers love, loss and the tragedy that has befallen the central character, Jeanne Le Page. My inspiration came from having just read a book about another small island near France. It had echoes of Guernsey, where I had lived for many happy years and which still occupies a large part of my heart. In fact, I managed to leave a son behind in order to provide a valid reason for frequent returns! I felt comfortable with basing my story there as I knew the island – and some of its history – so well. The Occupation still has a significant impact on modern-day Guernsey and I wanted to make reference to that awful time even though the thrust of the story is set in the present day.

The second book, Finding Mother, is a romance/family drama, revolving around Nicole who seeks her birth mother when she hits a crisis in her marriage.

The third, Guernsey Retreat, is another romantic mystery and centres on Louisa who needs to find the father she's never met after her mother dies suddenly.

My latest book, The Family Divided, was  published in June 2015 and is a romantic mystery/family drama. The story sees Andy Batiste, a Guernsey-man, attempting to uncover the truth behind the rift in the family which has cost his father his rightful inheritance. He is offered the help of Charlotte Townsend, a publisher and would-be writer who is staying at a luxury health resort in Guernsey and has issues of her own to resolve.

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The Family Divided (The Guernsey Novels Book #4) by Anne Allen

Charlotte is a successful publisher and she is trying to work on writing her own novel for the first time. When she is hit by writers block and feels too ashamed to ask for help from the many authors she knows, fearing it makes her look like a failure, she heads from her London base to the island of Guernsey to see friend Louisa and to stay at the beautiful and spiritual natural health centre on the island to relax and recharge to get her in the right frame of mind so she can continue writing.

What started off as a short-break soon changes when she helps out a well known author on the island with some research. Charlotte soon finds out a family injustice has been done and she becomes emotionally involved and keen to solve the mystery of a families secrets. She gets particular close to Andy who believes his family have been cheated out of their rightful inheritance.

Will she find the answers to help heal a family torn apart from years of feuding?

I really enjoyed this story. This is the first book I have read out of the Guernsey novels and I would read more. When you get to the end of the chapters you cannot help but read on due to the clever way author Anne Allen leaves you in suspense and wanting to read on to see what happens next.