The Beachcomber - Hardcover

Cox, Josephine

3.77

981 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007146051 ISBN 13: 9780007146055

Publisher: Book Club Associates/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2003

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One of the country’s bestselling storytellers joins HarperCollins with her new page-turning drama about struggle and triumph over adversity.

The Beachcomber is the story of two people, each with a dream, each lonely in different ways, and just when everything seems to be coming right for them, fate steps in to turn their worlds upside down.

In the summer of 1952, two lonely people arrive in the pretty seaside hamlet of West Bay. Strangers coming from very different backgrounds, they are there for the same reasons: to find peace of mind and the chance to start a new life.

A quiet, lonely man, Tom Arnold has abandoned all his possessions and walked away from a highly paid job. A year ago, he had a wife and two beautiful children, when suddenly his world was turned upside-down. The car he was driving with his family was deliberately run off the seaside road high above the cliffs. He was the only survivor. The maniac driver – who Tom is sure intended to kill them all – has never been found.

Now, a year later, he needs to be alone to deal with the pain and contemplate his future.

Kathy Wilson has tried to cling on to her zest for life and her sense of humour through times of pain and loneliness. Recovering from her divorce, she seeks comfort in the arms of other men and parties. But a shocking, revealing row with her mother is the final straw, and consequently when she inherits a rundown house in West Bay, she flees to Dorset.

For both Tom and Kathy, it seems there is hope of rebuilding their lives. Yet even now, someone means to wreck both Tom and Kathy's search for happiness. People are jealous. And a brutal killer is still on the loose... Suddenly West Bay is not the peaceful place it was...

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Review:

Josephine Cox has a truly devoted following for whom this bestselling author can do no wrong. So it's fortunate, therefore, that she so rarely deviates from the thoroughly engrossing narratives that are her stock-in-trade. Her new book, The Beachcomber, demonstrates all her considerable virtues: a grand, sweeping narrative, colourful and evocative scene-setting and (most of all) sympathetically drawn leading characters that pull the reader inexorably into her richly wrought story.

Set in the summer of 1942, The Beachcomber has two protagonists from disparate social settings, but both sharing the sense that something crucial is missing from their lives. In the quiet seaside town of West Bay, Tom Arnold is coming to terms with what many would deem a rash action--he has walked away from a prestigious job after his wife and children were killed when the car he was driving was forced off a precipitous cliff road by another motorist. Tom is convinced that the driver (who has never been tracked down) intended to destroy them all. As Tom contemplates his bleak future, Kathy Wilson similarly struggles with a sense of loss after a terrible argument with her mother brings home to her how unfulfilling her life of loneliness is. She has inherited a down-at-heel house in West Bay. Inevitably, the two find each other, and it's here that Cox's top-notch skills as a romantic writer are truly in their element. We are made to care for both of these well-drawn characters, and even without the return of the killer who destroyed Tom's family, we would still be pretty comprehensively gripped by the narrative. Josephine Cox fans will not need anyone to tell them that this is choice stuff—their favourite author is up to her usual standard. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"In true Josephine Cox style, it's the triumph-over-tragedy formula which has proved so successful in her previous novels...She captures the period impeccably...In The Beachcomber she is giving her fans exactly what they expect, a non-confrontational Heartbeat-style novel which is guaranteed to maintain her appeal.’ Express

Praise for Josephine Cox:

'Cox's talent as a storyteller never lets you escape the spell' Daily Mail

'Impossible to resist' Woman's Realm

'Driven and passionate' Sunday Times

'Irresistible storytelling' Books magazine

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