Padlocked
Released by Drake Valley Press, March 2026
Be sure to check out the stories behind the scenes!
In the afterlife, your past isn’t over. It’s waiting for you.
Ordinary people are swept into an extraordinary storm of life-altering circumstances as Nazi Germany invades Poland in 1939. Each decision they make seals a fate, binding strangers in an unbreakable chain of consequence. Their intertwined fates reveal the profound ripple effects of human action and the cost of seeing through another’s eyes.
Teenaged Agata is separated from her sister in Warsaw as the Nazis encircle it. Agata made a vow that she would return to take Elsa to safety, but soldiers and barbed wire prevent her from entering the newly established Jewish sector. When she discovers her sister was taken by train to a work camp near Krakow, she navigates her war-torn country in search of her. Her quest will force her to confront a Hell on Earth to find her.
Max searches for belonging when he joins the Jungdeutsche Partei, or the Young German Party. Once bullied as a child, Max’s new affiliations promote him to a position where he can dictate life or death and settle scores. In order to thrive under Nazi occupation, he makes daily choices that impact the friends and family he once loved.
Two foreign photojournalists, an American and a Spaniard, are trapped between armies at Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, along Poland’s western border with Germany. It is Hank’s last overseas assignment, and he’s been counting the days until he can go home to North Carolina to be with his family. Rafe fled Spain after the dictator, Francisco Franco, targeted his family. His experience with Guernica has convinced him that the rise of fascism in Europe is not one of ideology but a war between good and evil. They will find themselves embedded with the Polish, Nazi, and Soviet forces at varying times, forcing them to face moral and ethical decisions in their struggles to survive.
While they don’t know one another at the start of their journeys, each will make decisions that have the power to transform them and place them on paths that ultimately converge on January 27, 1945, as the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front opened the gates to Auschwitz-Birkenau for all the world to witness.
This is ultimately a story about the strength of love, courage, faith, and resilience in the face of unimaginable hatred and obsession with power, and how every decision we make places us further along specific paths.
Published by Drake Valley Press
Trade Paperback: 978-1-935970-57-6 (428 pages)
Hardcover: 978-1-935970-58-3 (428 pages)
Large Print Paperback: 978-1-935970-59-0 (777 pages)
All eBook Formats: 978-1-935970-56-9
From Reviewer Gina Rae Mitchell:
“What makes Padlocked by p.m. terrell especially compelling is its focus on the human side of history. Rather than centering on a single perspective, the story follows multiple individuals whose lives intersect in unexpected ways, each facing decisions that test their values, loyalty, and sense of self.
“The novel leans into moral complexity-there are no easy answers here. Characters are shaped by circumstance, fear, and survival, making their choices feel both personal and deeply consequential. If you’re drawn to historical fiction that explores not just what happened, but how it changed the people living through it, this is a story that offers both emotional weight and meaningful reflection.”
Read more at https://ginaraemitchell.com/padlocked-by-p-m-terrell/