The Apple Core Wars

The Apple Core Wars – Linda Bettenay From the fertile fruit growing Perth hills to a World War II prison camp - this is a saga of two men battling for survival. Entwined in the battle is hatred, then mateship as they fight for their lives and compete for the heart of their one true love. ‘The Apple Core Wars’, Linda J Bettenay’s third book, tells the story of Jacky Bellamy, Charlie Parkin and the beautiful Stella Cerini. Jacky is a wild boy from Karragullen, Stella a nurse who defies convention and Charlie an outsider from the enemy territory of Roleystone and rival for Stella’s attention. The normal hurly-burly of their early lives is contrasted against the bleak backdrop of Camp Fukuoka 14 in Nagasaki, Japan. Despite the awkward love triangle, a surprising friendship emerges when Jacky and Charlie are thrown together as prisoners of war. Their lives are further challenged by an atomic bomb and a shocking family secret. The war ends and those who survive return home to an uncertain future. Bettenay’s beautifully crafted sentences will leave you thirsting for another reading session as you become absorbed by the characters’ entangled lives. It has become standard for Bettenay’s storytelling to be embedded with scandal, mystery and challenges to convention and ‘The Apple Core Wars’ does not fall short. Her talent for overlaying history with her knowledge of the Roleystone and Karragullen areas, where she herself grew up, brings an era back to life. Bettenay extends the lives of characters introduced in her previous books, ‘Secrets Mothers Keep’ and ‘Wishes for Starlight’ including Marco, Arthur, Mary, Mibs, Eustace, Macca and Bluey as she paints a vivid picture of life in the orchards of the Perth hills through a series of generations. She was inspired to write her latest novel by the real Parkin family, where seven of eight brothers enlisted to serve overseas.