Delilah

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Pan ddiflanna ei olygydd Humph Blake ac y darganfyddir corff ar safle'r stadiwm cenedlaethol newydd, mae'r newyddiadurwr Twm Bradley yn dechrau amau'r dyn a fu fel tad iddo. Gyda phawb wrthi fel lladd nadredd yn ceisio ailadeiladu'r lle ar gyfer twrnamaint rygbi, a all Twm ddatrys y cyfrinachau o gariad, twyll a llygredd i ddarganfod y gwir am ddiflaniad Humph?

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

When his editor Humph Blake vanishes and a body turns up on the site of the new national stadium, reporter Twm Bradley starts to question the father figure he thought he knew. With a race on to rebuild the venue for a world rugby tournament, can Twm untangle a web of love, deceit and corruption to uncover the truth about Humph's disappearance?

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

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Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

This is an exciting first novel from Rhodri Wyn Owen who, so far, is better known in other fields (guidebooks and TV drama); but, as an experienced journalist, he has a feel for the interaction of professionals in the newspaper business. Although the novel is set to some extent before his own time, Owen conveys the pressures and camaraderie of the pre-digital newsrooms. This is the world of Humphrey Blake, editor of the Porthcoed Gazette in south Wales, and of his friend and protégé Twm Bradley. When Blake is suspected of embezzlement and much worse, Twm has to use all his reporter’s skills to find the truth. The action takes place around the time that Cardiff Bay was being reborn and the National Stadium was being rebuilt in the 1990s, but it harks back thirty years to police corruption and the murder of the title character, a young woman who inspired desire and whose death marked several men’s lives. Angharad adopted the name Delilah, but she did not really take away the power of the men she attracted. She resented their tendency to think they owned her but was ultimately the powerless one. Tom Jones’s famous song has become a kind of anthem, echoing around the Welsh National Stadium, but as one of the characters points out, it is about an act of murderous jealousy – a kind of ritual sacrifice – a comment on a culture not truly self-aware of what it might continue to tolerate. Set within a journalists’ milieu which is warmly credible, we have a plot with many twists that leaves the reader in constant doubt about who is to be believed. Twm, the central character, is loyal but has his own weaknesses and blind spots, which sometimes place him in life-threatening situations. There are a number of strong supporting characters such as Teg, the ‘mother’ of the newspaper office, who proves to have some surprising talents, and Twm’s estranged father – academic, untrustworthy and with some very dangerous associates. This is, to a degree, a classic thriller with a journalist as investigator – sniffing out leads, peeling back layers of deceit and finding the effects of powerful interests both inside and outside the law. Twm is an engaging and sympathetic character with whom to travel through the intricate and fast-paced story, and the final words suggest there is a good possibility that readers might meet him again.