The Boy In the Dark

I was thrilled to be contacted by Ken McKechnie a couple of months ago to tell me about his novels, particularly those based on Cornish miners in the 19th Century. A geologist-turned writer, Ken has extensive experience in the mining industry, and has gone to great lengths to ensure his writings are correct when it comes to mining and geology. I can confirm, he has done just that.

I am really bad at reading. I can read, by the way; I just have a terrible attention span! Historically, with my time largely taken up with reading scientific papers or marking coursework I seldom found time to get my teeth into a proper good book. However, since becoming self-employed I am making sure I have time to do things like read and listen to podcasts, so I was really pleased to hear about Ken’s books.

I have read Ken’s book “The Boy in The Dark”. It is set in the 19th Century, and is about a fictional copper mine in east Cornwall. It tells the story of a young miner trying to follow in his late father's footsteps whilst dealing with the hardship and danger of mining during that time. In trying to unravel the mysteries of his father’s death, he discovers treachery and sinister dealings with the mine’s management and risks his life as he endeavours to find the truth. I won’t say any more – you will have to read it yourself!

I loved it. It is a real page-turner. It is really well-written and with bitesize chapters it solves my issues with a poor attention span! I can really recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading. I also like that Ken hasn’t romanticised historical mining quite like the other famous Cornish mining novels that you may have heard of! Historical mining was dirty, hard, and ruthless, and you really get the sense of that in this book. I am really looking forward to reading the sequel, “Cousin Jack”.

Thank you, Ken, for introducing me to your fabulous book! If what I have written here has convinced you to get a copy of Ken’s books, well you can by visiting his website - https://redgatebooks.co.uk/. You can also find out more about Ken there, and the other things he is up to.