PROLIFIC Aberystwyth author Geraint Roberts has released his seventh novel.

Entitled Foula and Beyond, it is the final part of a trilogy, set around a group of characters who have escaped from Estonia in the second world war.

“The plot takes place in the Shetland Islands,” said Geraint, 60, “with a few sojourns through North East Scotland and Orkney. It’s a fitting end to the cycle and closes a few loops.”

Book one, Finnish Boys, saw Maarja and Juhan escape from the clutches of the Russian and German armies.

Book two, Forest Brothers, saw them escape Estonia, with Huw, a Welsh sailor, who had eloped to be with Maarja during the inter war years.

They escape to Shetland, via the Norwegian resistance - dubbed the ‘Shetland Bus’.

In the new book, Huw is now a liaison officer in the Shetland Isles, with the Norwegian Resistance. With Germany on the brink of defeat, they are in an area of relative calm, but their peace is about to be disturbed.

The traitor, Godfrey is once more at large, having escaped while being taken south for trial. He is loose somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland and appears to be heading towards Orkney and Shetland.

Maarja’s son, Juhan, has to overcome many obstacles in his search for him, including the attitude of the agent with whom he is assigned to work. Can Juhan find Godfrey in time with only the agent, the help of his parents and the Norwegian men of the Shetland Bus?

“Juhan is resourceful and deceptively canny,” Geraint added. “But once assigned, the others cannot sit still and work to try and assist him. The SOE girl, Jenny is quite arrogant at times with her ‘amateur’ assistant and even Juhan’s patience gets tested, as they try and find Godfrey.”

Geraint’s link with Shetland, goes back as far as 1987.

“I was best man at a wedding for an Aberystwyth school friend,” he recalls.

“On arrival, I could not help feel at home. The main town was small, but a long way from a major city, just like Aber. The locals were proud of their heritage, culture and their language – a dialect of Scots English.

“I enlisted the help of a local poetess to write some of my speech in Shetlandic and she ensured I pronounced it correctly! I sailed across from Lerwick to Bergen in a 33ft yacht later. That taught me a lot about the North Sea!

“It was good to put together my knowledge of history and places in Shetland and Orkney around a plotline. There are many historical factors which are little known to mainstream Britain – such as the Shetland Bus, Italian chapel and islands like Foula and Mousa. It was great to give them some coverage as a homage to the past.

“It’s great to finally complete a trilogy. Circumstances have allowed my publishing journey to be circuitous. Next in line is the third lead mining novel, A Light in the Darkness, then I am working on a story of a girl who keeps having nightmares where she is present at actual historic disasters as they unfold.”

Foula and Beyond is available via www.geraintroberts.com or Amazon (ISBN 9798408548262)