Dark Clouds of the Morning

Dark Clouds of the Morning is the debut novel from Canadian author Janet C. Burrill and it is wonderful!

Following the lives of fictional characters Jenny Grayson and her family and friends, the author explores the Halifax explosion of 1917. This novel gets your attention right away. I found it very interesting as I have pictures from that era preserved by my great-grandfather who was there during the explosion. Burrill has managed to capture the devastating scenes and the horror of that day through the eyes of Christian characters that make the novel come alive. 

The novel is well researched. I learned things I never knew before, like the friendship between Boston and Halifax that was established when the Americans sent teams of doctors and nurses to help after the explosion. To this day, Boston receives a huge Christmas tree from Halifax that is displayed in their city centre), as a token of their thanks and to remember what Americans did for Canadians on that fateful day. That's so neat!

The only problem I have with the book is the obvious lack of editing it received. This surprised me, since the author acknowledges the editor and gives him credit for a job well done. However, the errors didn't take away from the book. They were more along the lines of misspelled words and punctuation. Hopefully, the author will go with a different editor for her sequel Sunrise over the Harbour, which I look forward to reading!

You can purchase Dark Clouds of the Morning through the author's website at http://darkcloudsofthemorning.com/ or through Amazon where it is also available as a Kindle version.

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