A Mother’s Betrayal

Emma Hornby

MARRIED to an abusive husband, one woman must fight for her family’s happiness in a moving and gripping saga from Bolton author Emma Hornby.

Hornby (pictured below), who once worked in a Blackpool rock factory and was inspired to write after researching her own family history, bases her stories on the many generations of her family who eked out life amidst the squalor and poverty of Lancashire’s slums.

Click HERE for Lancashire Post review

And this history is reflected in her emotionally-charged stories which include the powerful and absorbing novel, A Shilling for a Wife, set in mid-19^thcentury Bolton, and Her Wartime Secret, featuring a family torn apart by war and held together by a secret.

In this new saga, Hornby sweeps us to Manchester in 1867 where Mara O’Hara longs for a peaceful life free of violence and poverty. But she has married the bully Seamus O’Hara whose family includes three stepsons who all have a reputation for drunkenness and quick tempers.

Her eldest stepson Conrad is the worst of them all… a brute and a criminal who makes Mara’s life a misery. But when Conrad is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Mara is the only one who can prove his innocence. Perhaps this is her chance to finally free her family from his toxic influence. Will Mara clear Conrad’s name, or will she have the courage to break away from her stepson’s villainy?

Hornby’s gritty and emotion-packed tale of revenge, retribution, love and friendship explores the hardships of life in the 19^th century and features a cast of authentic characters. Expect tears and laughter as Hornby delivers another northern winner. (Penguin, paperback, £6.99)