The Howarth Series
Mary is a nurse at a Lancashire prison camp for German POWs. Life at work is difficult but fulfilling, life at home a constant round of arguments. Mary is persuaded to go out with Frank Shuttleworth, a guard at the camp. But life is never straightforward, and when Mary realises she doesn’t love him, she also finds out he will never stop pursuing her. Help comes from an unexpected place.
May 1950, Britain is struggling with the hardships of rationing and the aftermath of the Second World War. Peter Schormann, a German ex-prisoner of war, has left his home country to be with Mary Howarth, now the matron of a small hospital in Wales. They intend to marry, but there are many obstacles in the way of their happiness, not the least of which is Mary’s troubled family.
It’s 1969 and Mary Schormann is living quietly in Wales with her ex-POW husband, Peter, and her teenage twins, Richard and Victoria. But there are secrets dating back to the war that still haunt the family, and finding out what lies at their root might be the only way that one of them can escape the murderous consequences.
It’s 1911 and Winifred Duffy is a determined young woman eager for a life beyond her father’s grocer’s shop and life with her domineering mother. The scars of Bill Howarth’s troubled childhood linger into adulthood until a chance encounter with Winifred gives him hope of a happy future. But the Great War intervenes and changes both their lives.
Other books, including Domestic Noir and Domestic Thrillers
Mother and daughter tied together by shame and secrecy, love and hate. Over the course of 24 hours their moving and tragic story is revealed – a story of love and duty, betrayal and loss …
An accident and a terrible lie by sixteen-year-old Angie tears her family apart and results in her younger sister, Lisa, being sent away. They don’t speak for thirteen years, until their mother’s death brings them together.. A powerful story of domestic violence, courage and forgiveness.
914 – and everything changes for Jessie and Arthur fall in love on the day war is declared. Arthur lies about his age to join his Pals’ Regiment. Before he leaves, Arthur gives Jessie a heart-shaped stone to remind her of their love. But Jessie has a secret. When she can hide the truth no longer she is thrown from her home and rejected by society. Faced with a desperate choice between love and safety, Jessie must fight for survival, whatever the cost.
A lively account of Judith Barrow’s experiences moving to Pembrokeshire in the 1970s and managing a holiday let with some interesting visitors, sometimes amusing and sometimes rather challenging.
After the death of their mum, twins Chloe and Charlie are shocked when their dad introduces Lynne as their ‘new mummy’. Lynne, a district nurse, is trusted in the community, but the twins can see her kind smile doesn’t meet her eyes. In the months that follow they suffer the torment Lynne brings to their house as she stops at nothing in her need to be in control.
Betrayed, separated and alone, the twins struggle to build new lives as adults, but will they find happiness or repeat past mistakes? Will they discover Lynne’s secret plans for their father? Will they find each other in time?
The Stranger in My House is a gripping ‘cuckoo in the nest’ domestic thriller, exploring how coercive control can tear a family apart. Set in Yorkshire and Cardiff, from the 60s to the winter of discontent, The Stranger in My House dramatises both the cruelty and the love families hide behind closed doors.
“Judith Barrow’s greatest strength is her understanding of her characters and the times in which they live.” Terry Tyler
Judith Barrow 