A BROMSGROVE author hopes to cause a stir with the release of her latest novel, which she describes as a cross between The Hunger Games and The Da Vinci Code.

Carmen Capuano’s sixth published book “Ascension” is set in a dark world where unmarried mothers are vilified within their religion and have their children removed from birth.

With close friend Sarah pregnant and unmarried, the book’s narrator is torn between discovering the location of the father or allowing laws to take the child and endure a grim life.

Ms Capuano said: “Ascension will make a lot of people uncomfortable. It’s certainly not a book for the faint hearted – and that’s exactly why I was so driven to write it.

“I believe that if a story doesn’t make you sit up and think, then the author isn’t doing their job correctly.

“People tell me my books are riveting and it’s exactly for that reason that I write them.”

The author, who is initially from Glasgow, previously explored uncomfortable territory in her 2015 book “Split Decision” and hopes her latest offering earns further acclaim.

She added: “Having been raised as both a Protestant and a Catholic in Glasgow, I was best placed to see how religion can be used as a tool, to control, and to ignite passions.

“Because of the way I write, each new twist and turn of the plot left me breathless.

“Ascension’s world is like a dark mirror to our own, an alternative route through our history and the main character is as strong and as bold as I hope I could be in her circumstances.”

Ascension is available through Amazon from February 17 and all major book retailers.