I had a lovely email from Joanna Orwin, a New Zealand author of historical fiction, who is one of my beta-readers and critiquers. She won’t mind if I mention that she’s usually a hard taskmaster:

“You were responsible for a very late night last night! The Piano Player arrived in my letterbox late afternoon, and I made the mistake of sitting down and reading the first page… I couldn’t put it down. Even though the first two-thirds was familiar material, I found it a gripping read and really wanted to see how it all ended…Great pace, convincing twists and turns (you excel at these complicated plot lines!), interesting characters and enough political and social background to give a reader a good insight into the  Ireland of those times.”

I was delighted – such praise makes it all worthwhile!