Following on from his first two novels, ‘Countess Lucy and the Curse of Coberley Hall’ and ‘Sabrina and the Secret of the Severn Sea’, Guy Sheppard has returned with another mystery thriller set within Gloucestershire.

Whilst his books are fiction, the stories he creates are often based around truth, with hours of research going into the writing of each novel.

“My latest book ‘The Silent Forest’ is set in World War Two Gloucestershire,” said Guy. “It features fire guard Jo Wheeler whose job it is to extinguish incendiaries that enemy bombers drop on Gloucester Cathedral.

“In real life there were nine bombing raids on Gloucester in the 1940s with 150 casualties and five lives lost.”

His latest story tells the tale of Jo, whose friend Sarah dies under mysterious circumstances. Her husband is convinced she was murdered, and the plot thickens, as Guy explains.

“Jo has already suffered horribly in the Bristol Blitz in 1940. She has moved to Gloucester to forget, but not forgive. She’s drinking too much in the The Monks’ Retreat bar and is pregnant with an American GI’s baby.

“Jo does not expect her newfound sense of purpose to lead her to a ten-year-old boy called Sam who says he has seen a mysterious white boar in the Forest. However, their paths are irrevocably entwined. By believing Sam she might just save a wife from her brutal husband as well as solving what happened to her friend. But will she believe Sam in time? Will anyone?”

Guy was born in London but moved to Cheltenham when he was nine years old, when his father took a job at Tungum Hydraulics.

After attending Cheltenham Grammar School he went to Corpus Christi College in Oxford – the first pupil from the school to attend Oxford University – where he achieved a first-class degree in English Literature.

“Apart from a year in York and another one in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I have lived and worked in Cheltenham ever since,” he explained.

“I met my wife (the well-known Gloucestershire poet Alison Brackenbury) at college where we both did English literature degrees.

“Many people know me as the restorer of their motorcycles and cars from when Alison and I ran our electroplating business ‘Wellbrite Plating’ in Cheltenham for 36 years!”

Since retiring and throwing himself into the world of publishing, Guy has specialised in crime mysteries with an element of the supernatural thrown in for good measure.

“Inspiration comes from Gloucestershire’s rich history as well as its legends,” he added. “I’m after a genuine sense of mystery that goes beyond, or seems to go beyond, the immediate reality.

“So is the countess in ‘Countess Lucy And The Curse Of Coberley Hall’ really dead and is Sabrina in “Sabrina & The Secret Of The Severn Sea’ just a successful shipping magnate or is she is also the goddess of the river?

“Similarly, in ‘The Silent Forest’, is there really a phantom boar or is it just some rogue pig put out to forage in the forest during the pannage season?”

‘The Silent Forest’ is out now and is available to buy on Amazon in both paperback and eBook.

And Guy already has plans for his next novel, which will be a continuation of this latest work.

He said: “The novel ‘in the works’ at the moment will be another WWII story rooted in Gloucestershire.

“This one will be a bit special because it will be a psychological crime thriller featuring letters actually written during the conflict, whilst giving a fictionalised version of my own father’s plunge into darkness and turmoil when his first marriage failed. It will also feature Jo Wheeler and will see the war through a woman’s eyes.”

Look out for an advert of ‘The Silent Forest’ in the April edition of The Local Answer.