Paul's novels are authentic and gritty, with twists and turns the reader won't see coming. He paints a realistic image of how peasants would have lived in the 16th and 17th centuries. However, that is only the backdrop to suspenseful and mysterious stories with romantic tones. His novel 'Red Winter Journey' https://bit.ly/3WXHVUs has been nominated for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards (Christina Stead Prize for fiction). His new novel 'Dream of Courage' has been long-listed for the Historical Fiction Club’s Book of the Year Award and will be released in November.
Paul has been a guest on ABC, BBC, and America Tonight with Kate Delaney and regularly features on the Witty Writers Show in the US. The US Times https://bit.ly/3ZXOfNT said, 'Modern writers usually don't know what it was like to live in the past, but Rushworth-Brown does this with great skill in his accomplished, atmospheric and thoughtful novels.' https://bit.ly/3C9GFoO
Skulduggery
"This book took a while to get to me, but it was well worth the wait! It kept me on my toes and kept me guessing, and I had no idea how it was going to end. I developed different theories while reading, but none of them was right, and I liked that I didn’t know what the ending was. The main character, Tommy, was young, complex and intelligent. Agnes is a country beauty, and Mrs Hargreaves is a strong intelligent woman. Great ending, didn’t see that coming. This really was a historical whodunnit! A mystery is a romance told in a non-vulgar or erotic way.
Red Winter Journey
"A chilling and provocative historical novel with the most wonderfully realised sense of place and time. As England begins to tip into the English Civil War, a peasant family living on the moors of Yorkshire tries to deal with the threat of coming hostilities. Uncertainty spreads across every page, creating a two-tone fear of what is to come They try to ignore the threat until their youngest son is taken to fight. Author Paul Rushworth-Brown writes with such exquisite grace yet has the ability to send goosebumps skittering. Here he has created an absolutely fascinating blend of historical, mysterious fiction where the echos of the past desperately warn against the mistakes of today. The themes of impending war with expanding human atrocities and the uncanny presence within the house intensify the sense of danger after Tommy’s father and grandfather go on a perilous journey to bring him home. The fear and hesitation felt by Isabel (Tommy's young wife) and Agnes (His mother) help to create a link and understanding of how easily a collective of people can slip into utter horror. There is an edge to the characters, each has an element that is hard to grasp, yet I lived alongside and felt as though I was a part of them. This clever, bold, intensely fierce writing felt incredibly powerful as it hammered at my awareness. Red Winter Journey is an achingly compelling novel that slices into hearts and minds with beautiful authority.
Dream of Courage
"I read the 'advanced reader's copy of this novel. Rushworth-Brown has a great gift for making a distant time come to life. This tale is a deeply moving one and the reader cannot help but empathise for not only Robert, but his poor peasant family. Beautiful backdrops and compelling action will play out before you as you are transported back in time. You will laugh, cry, and be in awe of the twists and turns saying to yourself “I didn’t see that coming".
Dream of Courage is very descriptive, the hooks very bold and is told in a way that places the reader in the time and place in this bittersweet family saga. Not historical fiction but historical mystery."
