How did Danny die?

On a summer’s day in 1955, the drowned body of young Danny Masters is discovered by three of his teenage friends: Alexander, heir to the country estate that neighbours the village, and siblings Lennie and Tom, whose father is land agent to the Richmond family.

Lennie is in love with volatile Alexander, but is he also in love or merely playing with her? Alexander’s mother has been a widow for less than a year, yet her husband’s brother seems always to be by her side. In the weeks that follow the tragic drowning, the river begins to give up its secrets. As the circumstances surrounding Danny’s death emerge, relationships and bonds develop, and other stories gradually come to the surface, threatening to destroy an entire way of life.

Karen Powell
Karen Powell was born in Rochester, Kent. She left school at 16 but returned to education as a mature student to study English Literature at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in North Yorkshire. An early draft of The River Within was awarded a Northern Writers’ TLC ‘New Fiction Reads’ prize, which seeks to support work-in-progress by new, emerging and established writers across the North of England.

• Aug 1 2021
  “This book is unforgettable; it is a masterpiece.”
  — Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory and Circus of Wonders
• Aug 1 2021
  “Hamlet comes to fifties Yorkshire in this compelling riff on love, grief and family strife.”
  — Lisa Appignanesi, author of Everyday Madness
• Aug 1 2021
  “As alive and evocative as Millais' painting of Ophelia.”
  — Preti Taneja, author of We That Are Young
• Aug 1 2021
  “A fresh look at the pressures our caste systems place upon all of us, no matter where we come from.”
  — Los Angeles Times
• Aug 1 2021
  “A gripping mystery.”
  — The Yorkshire Post
• Sep 23 2020
  “Evocative and engrossing”
  — Heat Magazine