NEW RELEASE
Second Chances - Charity Norman (2012)
aka After The Fall
Martha has moved her family - partner Kit, teenage daughter Sasha and five-year-old twins Finn and Charlie - from the UK to New Zealand for a fresh start. They settle into a remote farmhouse but disaster strikes one night when Finn ends up in a coma after a serious fall. Martha tells the authorities he fell from the veranda while sleepwalking but something doesn't add up. The story alternates between hospital scenes to earlier episodes as the family finds their bearings in their new home. This is a real page-turner with a serious message and a very evocative setting.
What do you do when your dream escape turns into a nightmare? That's the question posed in Charity Norman's novel Second Chances (aka After the Fall). The summary says: "In the quiet of a winter's night, a rescue helicopter is sent to airlift a five-year-old boy with severe internal injuries. He's fallen from the upstairs veranda of an isolated farmhouse, and may not last the next few hours. At first, Finn's fall looks like a horrible accident; after all, he's prone to sleepwalking. Only his frantic mother, Martha, knows how it really happened. Martha only wants the best for her family. That's why she moved heaven and earth to move them from the UK to the other side of the world, to start their lives afresh. Now she's faced with decisions she never dreamed she'd have to make, with potentially devastating consequences. She's torn between her loyalty to her family and her need to protect them."