Book excerpt: It is the 1930s and having survived the Great Depression the Neill family must now face up to the hardships of war. The legacy Ann Neill has inherited from her kindly employer has been a godsend but just as their lives seem set to improve, the threat of war with Germany looms and they seem headed for a similarly dark horizon. Full of dark family secrets, Towards A Dark Horizon tells the next part of the story of Ann and Lilly Neill, their father Johnny as well as the Ryan clan and the budding relationship between Danny and Maddie. But in the turbulent years before and after the start of the Second World War, no one can escape the conflict or what fate has in store. In Towards A Dark Horizon, Maureen Reynolds continues her compelling story describing the trials and tribulations of working-class life in the close-knit community of pre-war and wartime Dundee.