A Gathering of Ghosts

A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland

Published by Headline

September 2018

1316. On the wilds of Dartmoor stands the isolated Priory of St Mary, home to the Sisters of the Knights of St John. People journey from afar in search of healing at the holy well that lies beneath its chapel.

But the locals believe Dartmoor was theirs long before Christianity came to the land. And not all who visit seek miracles. When three strangers reach the moor, fear begins to stir as the well's waters run with blood.

What witchcraft have the young woman, the Knight of St John and the blind child brought with them?

The Sisters will need to fight for everything they hold dear as the ghosts of the Old World gather in their midst.

This is the latest of Karen Maitland's novels and possibly the darkest that I've certainly read.  Set on Dartmoor in the 14th Century, the plot centres around the Priory of St Mary and those who work there.  The Sisters of the Knights of St John are threatened by the arrival of two Knights who are determined that Prioress Johanne and the Sisters will bow down to them, and that their sacred well will come under their protection, as well as the taxes that they collect.  The Sisters have worries more pressing of their own to deal with though after the discovery of a dumb and blind boy by the well.  Who is this child and why has he been left at the Priory?  The death of Father Guthlac who predicts that nothing good will happen at the Priory should the child remain there worries some of the Sisters, and as unexplained phenomena begin to occur at the well, the child's life is indeed at risk, for there are those who seek to protect him, and those that think he brings with him a curse.

Outside of the Priory live the mining community, a band of men, women and children who are fighting to survive during the famine that is engulfing the country; some of them will stop at nothing to feed themselves and their families and it really is every man for himself across Darmoor.  When two strangers who meet on the moor come across the tinners their lives are changed forever - Todde who is on the run from him previous master, and Sorrel, a woman with a disfigured arm, who has been called by a woman's voice to travel to Dertemora where she meets a local family of witches.  

The setting is perfect for this story - wild, barren and desolate; the moors are captured brilliantly throughout the book and you can certainly try to imagine what it must have been like to have been there so many centuries ago.  There are fewer characters than in previous Maitland novels and actually I liked this as it meant I wasn't flipping back and forth trying to remember who was who, and it gives each character more of an opportunity to have more of a story-line and to be built up in more detail.  I think this is probably my favourite of her novels so far and a perfect read for an autumnal evening in front of the fire!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x  

The Death of Mrs Westaway

The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware

Published by Harvill Secker

June 2018

When Harriet Westaway receives an unexpected letter telling her she’s inherited a substantial bequest from her Cornish grandmother, it seems like the answer to her prayers. She owes money to a loan shark and the threats are getting increasingly aggressive: she needs to get her hands on some cash fast.

There's just one problem - Hal's real grandparents died more than twenty years ago. The letter has been sent to the wrong person. But Hal knows that the cold-reading techniques she’s honed as a seaside fortune teller could help her con her way to getting the money. If anyone has the skills to turn up at a stranger's funeral and claim a bequest they’re not entitled to, it’s her.

Hal makes a choice that will change her life for ever. But once she embarks on her deception, there is no going back. She must keep going or risk losing everything, even her life…

I've read all of Ruth Ware's others books so of course when NetGalley offered up a copy of her latest novel I wasn't going to say no!  The Death of Mrs Westaway features an old country estate, a feuding family, dark secrets, and my favourite bit - tarot cards!  Harriet Westaway makes her living reading tarot cards for people on the pier in Brighton.  She is totally self-sufficient following the death of her mother in a hit-and-run accident some years earlier, and her father has never been made known to her.  One day she receives a letter from a solicitor to say that she has been named in her grandmother's will and must travel to Cornwall to find out what the bequest is.  

Hal (as she likes to be called) is somewhat sceptical, her grandparents are both dead, so surely the solicitor has made some sort of error.  However, with very little income, and a fierce loan shark on her back Hal thinks that she can probably scam the family into believing she really is the granddaughter they believe her to be.  After all she makes a living out of telling people their fortunes based on their appearances alone, so surely she can use this skill to her advantage?

Arriving at Trepassen House is nothing like Hal expected, and for the first time in ages, she is suddenly part of a family; albeit not an especially cosy one, but it feels right.  The housekeeper, however, seems to have taken an instant dislike to her and Hal isn't sure if she has already seen through her plan.  With trip wires, bulbs that are removed in the dark, and things that go bump in the night, Ruth Ware has conjured up a gothic style mystery for the modern day.  Families are never quite what they seem, are they?!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

Daughter of Light and Shadows

Daughter of Light and Shadows by Anna McKerrow

Published by Bookouture

October 2018

The stranger stood in the doorway, smiling as if he knew her. His blue-green eyes were transfixing: strange, luminous – like the sea on a cloudy day. Faye felt a sense of shifting, like standing on wet sand as the tide washed in, burying her deeper and deeper…

Faye Morgan – beautiful, independent and lonely – runs her family’s small shop of magical curiosities like her mother and grandmother before her. She longs for an escape, unaware of the dark power that flows through her veins…

When Faye casts a spell into the sea one cold morning, her call brings her to the attention of the wild and impulsive faerie king Finn Beatha. Finn pulls Faye into an intoxicating new world, both magical and treacherous… and as bewitching as Finn himself, who seems to command every part of her when he’s near.

As Faye’s passion for Finn grows, so does her fear that she might be there for some darker reason... and that she could be trapped in Faerie forever. Is there something in Faye’s past connecting her to this place, to Finn? And dare she find out more when every moment draws her further away from her old world?

This is Anna McKerrow's first outing as an adult author following on from her fabulous Greenworld trilogy of books for YA readers (and those of us that love that genre too).  Daughter of Light and Shadows is set in Scotland, and centres around Faye, a local witch who can trace her heritage back to the witch trial days of King James.  She runs a local magic shop and is helped out by her friends Annie and Aisha (notice that there are three of them).  One day they decide to do a love spell as none of them are having any luck in finding romance and as magic should have it, two men walk into Faye's life.  The first is Rav, a local property owner who is setting up Abercolme's first big music festival (much to the chagrin of the locals) and the second is Finn Beatha, lead singer of  one of the band's headlining the festival.

Rav seems drawn to Faye, like he is under some kind of spell, and asks her to look at his house as he is convinced that it is haunted in some way.  Faye discovers that it has been built on a faerie road and the faeries are not happy with this.  The faerie king, Finn Beatha, pulls Faye into his world as his lover and she is torn between the passion of both men.  However the world of faerie must not be entered into lightly and Faye must decide whether her life remains in the mortal world or the other world with Finn.

To begin with I didn't know this book was part of a series but with only a handful of chapters left to read I soon realised that it wasn't going to reach any satisfying conclusion for it to be a stand-alone novel.  I'm intrigued to find out what role Finn is going to play in the next book because he is certainly going to return in some shape or form to the world in which Faye inhabits, and can she ever truly stay away from him or retract the promises she made to the faerie queen Glitonea.  It was interesting to see the author take a different direction from her witchcraft routes and enter into the world of the faeries.  Some have compared this to the Sarah J Maas novels but I would argue that you cannot compare as this is less fantasy based.  Also, do not think that this is a YA novel - even I gasped at some of the sex scenes!!!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

Truly Madly Guilty

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Published by Penguin

July 2107

'This is a story which begins with a barbecue in the suburbs. . .'

By the end of it a lifelong friendship will be in tatters, a marriage on the rocks and an innocent bystander dead.

In just one evening six lives will change for ever . . .

Following on from Big Little Lies was always going to be a challenge, for me as a reader anyway, as I fell in love with that book from the very beginning and was hooked to the final word, so when I finally picked up my copy of Truly Madly Guilty I guess I always thought it was never going to be quite as good.

Truly Madly Guilty follows three families whose lives are entwined by one fateful summer afternoon when they share a barbeque together.  They are Tiffany and Vid (the hosts) with their teenage daughter Dakota, neighbours Erika and Oliver and their friends Clementine and Sam plus their little girls.  Lets also not forget Harry, the old cantankerous neighbour who has a habit of ruining everyone's fun and the scene is set for an afternoon that will change the lives of everyone mentioned.

Two months later and Australia is hit by the worst rainfall in it's entire history and its making everyone on edge.  Clementine is a bundle of nerves facing her forthcoming cello audition, her children are behaving badly and Sam seems to have hit a mid-life crisis.  Despite being best friends for decades, her and Erika seem to be no longer talking to each other, and Tiffany is holding back a secret from her past that she hasn't even shared with Vid.

Liane Moriarty weaves back and forth from the present rainy day, to that summer's afternoon with ease.  Telling part of the tale and then snatching it back from you so that you are longing to find out what exactly happened on that day.  I'd worked out most of the plot by the end of the book but there was one moment that I hadn't expected and it left me gasping out loud when I read it.  This is an author who knows how to tell a tale and by the end I wasn't let down.  Okay, so it wasn't as good as Big Little Lies for me, but then I didn't think it ever would be. However it tried very hard to get there.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x