A courtroom drama, a gripping thriller and a love triangle all rolled into one — that’s the magic of Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall.

Beth and Frank’s contended relationship depends on the past staying there, but when the man who broke Beth’s heart years ago returns to their village, everything starts to fall apart. The man is Gabriel Wolfe, and he’s brought with him his son Leo, who reminds Beth of her own son, who she lost in a tragic accident.

As she’s roped back into Gabriel’s orbit, tensions tighten around the village and secrets with deadly consequences threaten to out. As the story toggles between the past and the present, the woman Beth was and the woman she’s striving to be, the far-reaching fingers of first love find their purchase.

Broken Country has already been optioned by Hello Sunshine under the same team that produced Where the Crawdads Sing. It’s also been chosen as the March pick for Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club.

“You’re going to LOSE YOUR CHICKEN over it! 🤯,” wrote Witherspoon in her Instagram post announcing the pick. “Broken Country by @clarelesliehall is a gripping mix of thrilling murder mystery, and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to relive your truest love story all over again … plus, that ending?! I did NOT see it coming!”

Read — and listen to — an exclusive first look at Broken Country, below.

Listen to an excerpt of ‘Broken Country’

Part One

Gabriel

The farmer is dead, he is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him. Was it an accident or was it murder? It looks like murder, they say, with that gunshot wound to the heart, so precise it must have been intended.

They are waiting for me to speak. Two pairs of eyes relentless in their stares. But how can I tell them what he wants me to say, the words we have practiced over and over in the minutes before the police arrive?

I shake my head, I need more time.

It’s true what they say: You can live a whole lifetime in a final moment. We are that boy and girl again with all of it ahead, a glory-stretch of light and wondrous beauty, of nights beneath the stars.

He is waiting for me to look at him and, when I do, he smiles to show me he is fine, the briefest nod of his head.

Say it, Beth. Say it now.

I look at his face again, beautiful to me then and now and always, one final glance between us before everything changes.

The Trial

Old Bailey, London, 1969

Nothing could prepare me for the agony of watching the man I love sitting high up in the dock, flanked by two prison officers, as he awaits his verdict.

A man accused of an unthinkable crime.

He never glances up at the gallery to search for my face and he doesn’t look at the jury either. Doesn’t observe them, as I do, examining each one, panic pounding through me, as I ask myself: Will this tired-looking, gray-haired woman believe in his innocence? Will this middle-aged man in his banker’s garb of pinstripe suit, blue shirt with a white collar and cuffs, be the one to vote against him? The young man with shoulder-length hair, who looks kinder than the rest, might he be our ally? Mostly they are inscrutable, the seven men and five women who hold his fate in their hands. My sister says it’s good there are plenty of women. They are more compassionate, she says, as a rule. It feels like clutching at straws, but a part of me hopes the female jurors might understand the derailing passion that made us risk everything.

After months of our talking about it, the trial has begun. Everything about this courtroom seems to emphasize the severity of our situation: the high ceiling and wood-paneled walls; the judge, resplendent in red on his high-back chair, like a king on his throne as he surveys his court; beneath him the barristers in wigs and black gowns, looking through papers as they wait for proceedings to begin and the court clerk quietly pompous as he stands before the dock and makes his chilling proclamation: “You are charged with the murder …”

The press bench is filled with journalists in tweed jackets and ties, not a single woman among them. And then there is the gallery, where I sit with Eleanor, along with all the rubberneckers. Not so long ago I shared their thirst for human drama. How avidly I followed the Profumo scandal and the subsequent trial of Stephen Ward. I remember, as if it were yesterday, the photos of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies leaving court, how stylish they looked, how the press still managed to denigrate and cheapen them.

It’s very different when the prisoner in the dock is the person you love. Look up. Please, my love. I try to engage him telepathically, the way we always used to, but he stares ahead with his strange, blank eyes. The only giveaway of the distress I know he is feeling — felt in every waking moment since — is the angry clench of his jaw. To an outsider, perhaps, he looks hostile, but I know better. It’s the only way he can stop himself from crying.

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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is available now, wherever books are sold.