Where Peacocks Scream
Sixteen year old Daniel dreads the start of the long summer holiday.
He lives in a pub called The Riverside where his parents work themselves to death’s open door, coping with arrogant, greedy tourists and their dwindling bank balance.
Daniel has two passions: his love for messing about on the river, and the family of peacocks he cares for on The Riverside’s mucky, feather-strewn terraces.
But as the holiday begins, so do the disasters. His most beloved peahen, instead of hatching new lives, dies … not even in Daniel’s own arms but behind his sleeping back. A stranger he happens to spot on the far side of the water begins to haunt his dreams and then even his own bedroom.
Worst of all, his best friend, the adorable Jill, an American who lives with her grandmother in an old cottage in the heart of Wytham Woods, has to leave for New York to return to her family so they too may holiday away from the insufferable heat.
What more can possibly go wrong, and why?
In her first ever crossover novel, Valerie explores the dangers that lurk beneath still waters, the need for an ear that knows how to listen – and the implications of a long-held secret threatening to blow everyone but everyone to kingdom come.
Where Peacocks Scream will be published by VMBooks on Valerie’s 87th birthday. There will be celebrations on 22 October 2026 at The Back Lane Tavern, Woodstock.
Watch this space. Don’t telephone and crush all cameras underfoot. Be warned.
