The Hunger Within

Northern Ireland, 1981

The Troubles are tearing apart the country.

Neighbour turns on neighbour as the Catholic/Protestant divide rages on.

In Maze Prison, a group of men start a hunger strike, wanting to be recognised as political prisoners. On the outside, personal lives are also caught up in the turmoil.

When Bronwyn and Danny married, she had high hopes for their future.

Now, they barely speak and Danny keeps such strange hours.

When she learns Danny is involved in a shooting, she calls the police and he's sent off to the Maze, where he joins the hunger strikes.

Meanwhile Rose James is not a pretty girl, nor is she strong.

But she’s risking everything to date Connor Dean, a Protestant.

When Connor is shot, Rose’s world threatens to tear apart,

Her mother throws her out and with nowhere to go, she moves in with Connor’s mother, Mary, a formidable woman who also lost Connor’s father to The Troubles.

But it's not long before Mary sets out to get rid of Rose, travelling to The Maze to enlist Danny’s help.

He is the man who shot her son and Mary knows there's nothing he won't do to get a job done.

He agrees to make her problem disappear, if Mary will get Bronwyn to visit him. But no one could foresee the events that the handshake deal triggers.

And as Danny weakens, and death hovers, everyone’s lives are changed forever.

Set against the backdrop of The Troubles, The Hunger Within is rich with history, pathos and the unique pride that comes with surviving in a dark and hostile time.

Praise for J M Hewitt

‘An assured and absorbing read... Hewitt is an exciting newcomer to the Crime canon’ - Alex Marwood; Edgar and Macavity-winning Crime Author

'A thrilling story, brilliantly told.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of Cold Kill

J.M Hewitt is a crime writer living in Suffolk. Hewitt won the BritCrime Pitch Competition 2015 and was selected as a finalist in the Twisted 50 Short Story Horror Collection 2016. She is a member of the Crime Writers Association, the East Anglian Writers and is a regular at The Felixstowe Book Festival.