From two-million-selling author Steena Holmes, nine dark and gripping stories featuring Detective Meri Amber.
Nine missing girls. Nine cases the world wants to forget. One detective who never will.
Each file is someone’s daughter. Someone’s sister. And if Meri Amber can’t bring them home, she’ll make sure their stories end with justice.
As the FBI’s leading child abduction specialist, Meri has spent her career chasing the vanished – from Minnesota to Montana, from abandoned barns to dark cellars that still echo with screams. But every case cuts deeper than the last.
“I’m Detective Meri Amber. I’ve been searching for my sister for twenty years. Every missing girl is a mirror. Every scream behind a wall could be hers. I’ll never stop looking. These are the stories of the girls I’ve found, the truths I’ve uncovered, and the cracks in my own past I can’t seem to seal.”
From the horrifying secrets of the House of Dolls, to a macabre twelfth birthday party, to the sinister truths buried in the Widow’s Barn: delve into nine intriguing mysteries which will chill you to the bone.
NINE NAIL-BITING STORIES FULL OF SHOCKING TWISTS BY A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR.
With 2 million copies of her titles sold world wide, Steena Holmes was named in the Top 20 Women Author to read in 2015 by Good Housekeeping. She continues to write books that deal with issues that touch parents heart, whether it is through her contemporary fiction or psychological suspense novels.
My thoughts: Over nine cases Meri Amber looks for missing girls, girls like her sister, who she still wants to find, even if she can’t save her. She’s building a case, missing girl by missing girl, tracking evil across the country.
Sometimes she can help a vulnerable young woman, sometimes all she can do is ensure they aren’t forgotten, that any family they might have gets answers.
The stories are shocking, dark and sinister, there’s no happy endings here. There’s a narrative running through the nine stories, as Meri and her colleagues try to get justice, and stop the men who exploit, kidnap, abuse and kill.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
When she was five, her mother ran – with Steph and her younger sister in tow – from an abusive husband into the arms of a small Cherokee community, where she hoped they might finally belong. But Steph soon sets her sights as far away as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing interfere with her dream to become an astronaut, and ultimately, to go to the moon.
In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with the three women who know and love her most dearly: her younger sister Kayla, an artist whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; her college girlfriend Della, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her family as a young girl through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and her mother Hannah, who has held up her family’s history as a beacon of inspiration to her kids, all the while keeping the truth about her own past a secret.
Told through these women’s interwoven lives, and spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive coming-of-age novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths one woman will go to find a little space for herself.
Eliana Ramage holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has received residencies and fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Lambda Literary, Tin House, and Vermont Studio Center. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she lives in Nashville with her family. To the Moon and Back is her first novel.
My thoughts: This is very good, a beautifully written, engaging, intelligent story about family, as complicated as that can be, told through the eyes of two sisters – Steph and Kayla, and their mother Hannah. As well as Steph’s friend Della.
Their lives haven’t been easy, as members of the Cherokee, they live with the memories of the trauma their people suffered over generations. And they have their own too.
Hannah fled her abusive husband with her daughters, from Texas to Oklahoma, hoping to give them more than she had. Her parents threw her out when she was pregnant, and she does her best to love and support them, struggling to express that all the while.
Steph wants to be an astronaut, it’s her lifelong, obsessive, dream. It takes over at times and damages her relationships with her family, her friends and her girlfriend Della. She works diligently at achieving her goal, studying hard, applying for fellowships and eventually going to Hawaii to live in a simulated environment in an experiment.
But her interpersonal relationships are a mess, she’s bad at expressing her emotions, bad at communicating. Her obsessive plan to go to space overwhelms everything.
I found the relationship dynamics between the characters fascinating, they felt like real people – messy and complicated. The writing is confident and engaging. I don’t know a lot about Native Americans, living in the UK, they’re not something that we’re taught about, so a lot of those parts were interesting too.
It’s a really enjoyable book, and for a debut, is so confident and well written, I can’t wait to see what Ramage writes next.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
To celebrate the longlist (see image above) the books are being reviewed on book blogs and social media. To follow along search #SUDTP26
Worth £20,000, this global accolade recognises exceptional literary talent aged 39 or under, celebrating the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories and drama. The prize is named after the Swansea-born writer Dylan Thomas and celebrates his 39 years of creativity and productivity. The prize invokes his memory to support the writers of today, nurture the talents of tomorrow, and celebrate international literary excellence.
With an average age of 32, and comprising seven novels, three poetry collections, and two short story collections, the longlist is:
– Harriet Armstrong, To Rest Our Minds and Bodies (Les Fugitives) – novel
– Isabelle Baafi, Chaotic Good (Faber) – poetry
– Colwill Brown, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh (Chatto & Windus, Vintage) – novel
– Sasha Debevec-McKenney, Joy Is My Middle Name (Fitzcarraldo Editions) – poetry
– Suzannah V. Evans, Under the Blue (Bloomsbury Poetry) – poetry
– Vanessa Santos, Make a Home of Me (Dead Ink Books) – short stories
I read Gunk by Saba Sams, find my thoughts below ⬇️
From the award-winning author of the smash hit Send Nudes: an electrifying debut exploring love and desire, chaos and control – and family in all its forms
Jules has been divorced from her ex-husband Leon for five years, but she still works alongside him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub he owns in central Brighton. She spends her nights serving shots and watching, from behind the bar, as Leon flirts with students on the dancefloor. In the early hours of the morning, she paces home to sleep.
But then Leon hires nineteen-year-old Nim to work the bar with Jules – Nim, with her shaved head and steady pour, her disarming sweetness and sudden distance – and Jules finds herself jolted awake. When Nim discovers she’s pregnant, Jules agrees to help. As the months pass, and the relationship between the two women grows increasingly intimate and perplexing, it emerges that Nim has her own unexpected gifts to give.
Now, alone in her small flat, Jules is holding a baby, just twenty-four-hours old, who still smells of Nim. But no one knows where Nim is, or if she’s coming back. What could the future – for Jules, Nim, and this unnamed baby – possibly look like?
Raw, exhilarating, tender and wise, Gunk is an electrifying debut novel exploring love and desire, safety and destruction, chaos and control – and family in all its forms.
My thoughts: Jules has been divorced for five years but still works in her husband’s student filled night club Gunk. When he hires Nim to work behind the bar, she and Jules become friends, and possibly more as Jules finds herself drawn to Nim.
When Nim finds she’s pregnant, she offers the baby to Jules, who has wanted to be a mother, but never managed to get pregnant. Nim moves in with her, and the two women share her flat while waiting for the baby to arrive.
Neither knows how the birth will change things, whether Nim will stay or how they will cope. Can their relationship, whatever that might be, survive the changes coming?
Jules is a complicated character, she’s basically stuck in a rut in her life, still in the same job, still looking after her ex-husband, not having started a new relationship or really moved on in her life in a long time. Nim’s arrival shakes things up, although there’s a big age difference and Nim doesn’t talk about her life before.
The relationship between them is quite strange, they share a bed as there’s only one in the flat, Jules is a caretaker, she wants to look after Nim, even though Nim finds it too much.
It’s an interesting book, even if I never felt I really knew the characters, even Jules, the narrator, her habit of being arms length with her family felt like she was written to keep the reader at a distance too.
The longlisted titles will now be whittled down to a six strong shortlist by an impressive panel of judges chaired by Irenosen Okojie MBE, award-winning Nigerian British author of Curandera, Butterfly Fish, SpeakGigantular and Nudibranch, and former Women’s Prize for Fiction judge, who is joined by: Joe Dunthorne, award-winningSwansea-bornpoet and novelist; Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, poet, pacifist and fabulist; Prajwal Parajuly, multi-award nominatedauthor of The Gurkha’s Daughter and Land Where I Flee; Eley Williams, acclaimedauthor and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Last year’s prize was awarded to Palestinian writer Yasmin Zaher for her novel The Coin, and previous winners include Caleb Azumah Nelson, Arinze Ifeakandu, Patricia Lockwood, Max Porter, Raven Leilani, Bryan Washington, Fiona McFarlane, and Kayo Chingonyi.
The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist will be unveiled on Thursday 19 March, followed by a shortlist celebration event in London (13 May), with the winner revealed on International Dylan Thomas Day (14 May) at an evening ceremony in Swansea.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Expert on body language and memory, and consultant to the Oslo Police, psychologist Kari Voss sleepwalks through her days, and, by night, continues the devastating search for her young son, who disappeared on his birthday, seven years earlier.
Still grieving for her dead husband, and trying to pull together the pieces of her life, she is thrust into a shocking local investigation, when two teenage girls are violently murdered in a family summer home in the nearby village of Son. When a friend of the victims is charged with the barbaric killings, it seems the case is closed, but Kari is not convinced. Using her skills and working on instinct, she conducts her own enquiries, leading her to multiple suspects, including people who knew the dead girls well…
With the help of Chief Constable Ramona Norum, she discovers that no one – including the victims – are what they seem. And that there is a dark secret at the heart of Son village that could have implications not just for her own son’s disappearance, but Kari’s own life, too…
Known as the Queen of French Noir, Johana Gustawsson is one of France’s most highly regarded, award-winning authors, recipient of the prestigious Cultura Ligue de l`Imaginaire Award for her historical thriller Yule Island. Number-one bestselling books include Block 46, Keeper, Blood Song and The Bleeding. Johana lives in Sweden with her family.
A former journalist, Thomas Enger is the number-one bestselling author of the Henning Juul series and, with co-author Jørn Lier Horst, the international bestselling Blix & Ramm series. One of the biggest proponents of the Nordic Noir genre, his books have been translated into twenty-eight languages. He lives in Oslo.
My thoughts: I knew from the authors that this was going to be good, gripping and shocking. There are lots of different sons in this book, from Kari’s, missing for seven years, to the suspect, whose parents don’t seem remotely interested in him, as friends and other connected people.
The town where two teenage girls are brutally murdered is called Son, it’s quiet, not many full time residents, and they’re planning a Halloween party, but someone decides to stop them from ever having a good time. The police arrest an acquaintance of theirs, who admits to being in the house, having been invited to bring over some drugs, but says he’s innocent. The detectives don’t believe him. Kari does. She analyses his body language, those nonverbal clues that say a lot more than words.
So she starts digging. Digging into the lives of the two victims, into the lives of their families and friends. She learns a lot of secrets – affairs, money troubles, blackmail. But are any of them bad enough to kill over? Or is it something she can’t even yet guess at?
This is a real page turner – each revelation and twist kept me hooked. Kari is an interesting character, she goes against her police colleagues, determined that the science proves she’s right and that somewhere in all the evidence she uncovers, will be the answer, the reason why two young women were brutally killed. And in helping the suspect, her lost son’s best friend, maybe she can find some peace too.
*this is a repost from last year’s hardback tour, when I was provided with a copy of the book, but as always, all opinions remain my own.
She’s the woman of his dreams. He’s the monster from her nightmares.
When Daniella rescues elderly Peggy from a mugger on a Boston street, she expects nothing in return. But then she meets Peggy’s son, Lucas—devastatingly handsome and utterly captivating. Unlike her distant husband Grant, Lucas sees her. Wants her.
Daniella can’t resist and they spend one reckless night together which she immediately regrets.
Too late, because Lucas doesn’t just want Daniella. He needs her. And he’s willing to destroy everything—and everyone—standing in his way.
Lucas plays the long game, worming his way into Daniella’s life—befriending Grant, charming her twin daughters, inveigling his way into her family. Every time she turns around, he seems to be there.
As the depths of his obsession become clear, Daniella realizes she’s in a fight for her life. Because the family she tried to help is hiding something dark. Something deadly.
And she’s already in too deep to escape.
Don’t Answer the Phone – the chilling psychological thriller from the best-selling author of One Little Mistake and The Visitors.
Miranda Rijks is a writer of fast-paced, twisty psychological thrillers many of which have been Amazon bestsellers. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre. After surviving bone cancer, Miranda turned to writing and is now living the dream, writing suspense novels full time. She lives in West Sussex, England with her Dutch husband and two black Labradors and spends as much time as she can in the Swiss Alps.
My thoughts: Daniella helps an older woman who was being mugged. Peggy is very grateful and the two women become friends. Unfortunately this brings Daniella, a married mother of twins, to the attentions of Peggy’s son, Lucas. He’s obsessive, violent and likes to get his own way. He decides that Daniella is the one for him, and won’t let anyone – his mother, her husband, get in his way.
His campaign to win over Daniella starts well, but as she rejects him, he turns violent. But not towards her. He believes that he can still convince her to be his. Things get nastier, more violent, Daniella becomes a victim too.
There are plenty of red flags in Lucas’ behaviour, and Daniella certainly spots some of them. He’s scarily obsessive, the death of his former girlfriend worries her, other incidents make things worse. The story is gripping and full of sudden twists and turns, Daniella and her family are put into danger, and things change for them forever.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Ingrid Barker arrives back at Strathbairn to attend the funeral of her old employer, Charles McCleod.
Every bone in Ingrid’s body screams for her to leave, and as she walks from the graveside, she can’t shake the suspicion that Charles was murdered. As she hurries to uncover the truth and get away from Strathbairn, another murder takes place – one that traps her in the very place she is desperate to escape from.
Running out of time and clues, can Ingrid evade the truth of that terrible night up at the abbey the last time she was here, and can she solve the mystery of Charles’ death before his ghost does away with her?
An unputdownable gothic mystery laced with dark family secrets, SECRETS TAKEN TO THE GRAVE is the second book in the Strathbrain Trilogy series of historical mystery novels by Isobel Blackthorn.
Isobel Blackthorn is an award-winning author of immersive and inspiring fiction. She has penned over twenty-five books including a number of bestsellers.
Among her credits, Isobel’s biographical short story ‘Nothing to Declare’, which forms the first chapter of her biographical novel Emma’s Tapestry, was shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019. One of her Canary Islands novels, A Prison in the Sun, was shortlisted in the LGBTQ category of the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2020 and the International Book Awards 2021. The Cabin Sessions was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award 2018 and the Ditmar Awards 2018. And The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Reader’s Favorite Book Awards.
Blackthorn is the author of the world’s only biography of Theosophist and mother of the New Age movement Alice Bailey – Alice A. Bailey: Life & Legacy. Isobel’s writing has appeared in journals and websites around the world, including Esoteric Quarterly, New Dawn Magazine, Paranoia, Mused Literary Review, Trip Fiction, Backhand Stories, Fictive Dream and On Line Opinion. Isobel was a judge for the Australasian Shadow Awards 2020 long fiction category. Her book reviews have appeared inNew Dawn Magazine, Esoteric Quarterly, Shiny New Books, Sisters in Crime, Australian Women Writers, Trip Fiction and Newtown Review of Books.
Isobel’s interests are many and varied. She has a long-standing association with the Canary Islands, having lived in Lanzarote in the late 1980s. A humanitarian and campaigner for social justice, in 1999 Isobel founded the internationally acclaimed Ghana Link, uniting two high schools, one a relatively privileged state school located in the heart of England, the other a materially impoverished school in a remote part of the Upper Volta region of Ghana, West Africa. After working as a teacher, market trader and PA to a literary agent, she arrived at writing in her forties, and her stories are as diverse and intriguing as her life has been.
Isobel has performed her literary works at events in a range of settings and given workshops in creative writing.
British by birth, Isobel entered this world in Farnborough, Kent, UK. She has lived in England, Australia, Spain and the Canary Islands. She now lives and writes in Spain. She is currently at work on two novels composed in Spanish.
My thoughts: Ingrid returns to Strathbrain for the funeral of her former employer, despite misgivings. What she learns there is that his supposed natural death wasn’t.
And there’s more – she finds a history of the McCleod family that details the bloody history of the members. Generations of them with murder on their minds. It makes her even more concerned about staying there as Miles is behaving strangely. Is he the one Charles’ ghost wants her to identify as his killer?
Her daughter, Susan, is happily settled in with the house’s staff, baking with the cook, helping the maid clean the fireplaces. It makes it harder for Ingrid to insist on returning to Winchester soon. She also learns some things about her own family, but these are happier. Until bones are found in the old Abbey and bring up more recent history and could change everything.
Haunted and sinister, Strathbrain is not a friendly house, but by putting its ghosts to bed, things might finally change. And as Christmas approaches, putting the past behind them and starting the new year fresh is something Ingrid really wants.
The plot zigs and zags, every time Ingrid thinks she might escape, something happens to keep her there. All the twists kept me wondering what might happen next, were Ingrid and Susan at risk? Hopefully the darkness is behind them and when Ingrid next returns to Scotland it’s for happier reasons. But probably not!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A decades-old murder. A haunting legacy. A plot for revenge.
Stella Darnell knows her partner Jack is hiding something. After following him one evening, she discovers he’s been consulting a psychic in a desperate attempt to reach his dead mother. A sceptic by nature, and feeling betrayed by his lies, Stella fears what this means for their relationship.
Seeking distraction, she accepts DI Toni Kemp’s invitation to join her for a holiday in a small village in Gloucestershire. But the visit is derailed when a body is discovered at a shrine where a woman died decades earlier.
Drawn into the investigation, Stella must confront the legacy of a once-famous psychic whose shadow still hangs over Prestbury – while in the darkness, someone bent on revenge waits patiently for the perfect moment to strike…
Perfect for fans of LJ Ross and Kate Rhodes, this is the tenth gripping mystery in this must-read series that can be enjoyed in any order.
Lesley Thomson is the bestselling author of The Detective’s Daughter series, which has sold over 850,000 copies worldwide. The tenth instalment, The Shrine, marks a major milestone in the acclaimed series. Renowned for her atmospheric, character-driven mysteries, Thomson’s writing has been likened to Barbara Pym for its keen psychological insight and wit. Her debut, A Kind of Vanishing, won the People’s Book Prize, cementing her reputation as a distinctive voice in crime fiction. She lives in Sussex with her partner and their dog. Visit her website at http://www.lesleythomson.co.uk
My thoughts: I don’t believe mediums can contact the dead, so I’m definitely team sceptic, like Stella here. She’s worried about her partner Jack, who wants to find a way to communicate with the mother he lost as a child.
While worrying about that, she goes on a little break to Gloucestershire and gets caught up in a murder case while out delivering fish (you have to read it, it will make sense) and coming across a body left at the roadside shrine for a woman killed years before in a hit and run.
Alongside Stella’s misadventures, there’s also Jane’s story. Jane is visiting an old friend in the same village Stella’s staying in. She’s got a rather different agenda however, her friend’s mother (now deceased) once sent her away with a threat. She’s determined to free her friend from the shadow of her awful mother, who was once a famous medium.
Obviously Stella’s and Jane’s paths will cross, as Stella investigates the murder of the man left at the shrine. But there’s a lot more going on too. From stalkers to dodgy builders, secrets and murder. It’s all here in this supposedly quiet village.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A Cornish clifftop, a sunny afternoon, a quaint little teashop… but wait a minute. Is that jam, or blood? Maddie Penrose is determined to find out!
Maddie Penrose is staying with her beloved grandmother, Nor, at her gorgeously idyllic Cornish farm. She’s looking forward to days helping out in Nor’s little teashop and evenings wandering down the cliff path to watch the sunset. But before Maddie has even finished serving up scones on her first morning, a man bursts through the door: Nor’s neighbour Clive has found a body in the field behind the teashop…
Maddie is straight to the scene, fancying herself as a bit of an Agatha Christie. But solving this mystery is far from a piece of cake. Her list of suspects is jam-packed with locals, with some a little too close to home: the newcomer renting out one of Nor’s barns is acting suspiciously, the victim’s boyfriend has disappeared without trace, and Clive isn’t really Maddie’s cup of tea either…
But the proof is in the pudding when there’s another murder – her prime suspect is dead. And when Maddie finds a backpack belonging to the first murder victim, her diligent notetaking and quick thinking leads her to discover that the killer will act again, and soon. Maddie is horrified to discover that it looks like she is their next target…
Can Maddie and Nor work as a team to piece together the puzzle? Or will murdering Maddie be the icing on the cake for the killer?
A totally addictive, witty and warm cozy mystery that will keep you reading late into the night, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Verity Bright.
Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favourite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside and having a good natter.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this mystery set in my beloved Cornwall and investigated by someone who has a very similar name to mine!
Maddie is staying with her nan, Nor, who runs a tea shop on the family farm, and as a chef, she’s helping out with the baking. When the neighbouring farmer appears in the cafe covered in blood, she knows exactly what to do, call 999 and put the kettle on.
Maddie’s intrigued by the murder, and starts doing a bit of investigating of her own, plus the police detective in charge is rather dishy.
The case has plenty of twists and turns, and Maddie is learning a lot about the village and its residents. She’s writing a rather unusual recipe too – one that might end up in solving a murder. With help from two of the best named cats around – Crumpet and Toast.
I loved Fliss Chester’s other books and this was very good, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Maddie and Nor cook up next.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A killer is hunting Auckland’s homeless. No one cares. No one but Max. These are his people…
Max Grimes is homeless, living on the streets of Auckland – among the forgotten, the invisible. But now someone is hunting the homeless, killing them one by one. No one cares. Except Max.
Trying to put his shattered life back together, Max is pulled into a deadly game when a face from his past reappears, reopening wounds he thought were long buried. As whispers of a Grim Reaper spread terror through the city, Max must race against time – not only to find the killer, but to outrun the ghosts chasing him. Because if he fails, he’ll be next.
Vanda Symon is a crime writer from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the President of the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa.
The Sam Shephard series, which includes Overkill, The Ringmaster, Containment, Bound, Expectant and Prey, hit number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award, as has her then standalone thriller, Faceless. Overkill was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Bound and Expectant have been nominated for USA Barry Awards. All six books have been digital bestsellers, and are in produc on for the screen.
Vanda lives in Dunedin.
My thoughts: the homeless community is vulnerable in so many ways, something this killer exploits. His methods are fiendish, if Max hadn’t asked his detective friend Meredith to dig a little deeper and order autopsies, the deaths would go unremarked, just more statistics.
Max has also been approached by perhaps the last person on earth he would want to help. But he doesn’t want to be distracted, someone has to stop the killer from taking the lives of any more homeless people – people he counts as friends, people who deserve better than being moved along and forgotten.
But Max is now on the killer’s radar and his life is in serious danger, and while his past has left him with some skills, his present situation makes him as vulnerable as any of the other victims.
Totally gripping, intelligent crime writing, with a protagonist who might have stopped being a detective, but still wants to help people.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A captivating reimagining of the life lived by the powerful witch Sycorax before her banishment to the island in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Born of the sun and moon, shaped by fire and malady, comes a young woman whose story has never been told…
They call her Sycorax. Seer. Sage. Sorceress.
Outcast by society and all alone in the world, Sycorax must find a way to understand her true nature. But as her powers begin to grow, so too do the suspicions of the local townspeople. For knowledge can be dangerous, and a woman’s knowledge is the most dangerous of all…
With a great storm brewing on the horizon, Sycorax finds herself in increasing peril – but will her powers save her, or will they spell the end for them all? Find out in this gripping and vivid narrative exploration of one of literature’s most mysterious figures.
Originally from Leeds, Nydia Hetherington moved to London in her twenties to embark on an acting career. Later she moved to Paris where she studied at the Jacques Lecoq Theatre School before creating her own theatre company. When she returned to London, she completed a creative writing degree at Birkbeck and is the author of A Girl Made of Air.
My thoughts: Sycorax is only briefly mentioned in The Tempest, mother to Caliban, she could predict storms. From these tiny threads Nadia Hetherington has spun a magical, tragic tale of a woman outcast and alone, who only wants to help others, to belong.
Born to a mother who is of the Moon and a father who is of the Sun, the girl who would become Sycorax is afflicted with chronic pain, an illness she has inherited from her healer mother. She battles with her own body and with the scorn of the local townsfolk, who will buy her potions and curse her at the same time.
The pirate Barbarossa saves her, she warns him of a storm that lays waste to an approaching enemy army, but not his men, who he chooses not to send out following her words.
But before he can ensure her safety, she is preyed upon by a man beloved by the people but secretly cruel and manipulative. She’s alone except for one elderly woman who tries to help her.
It’s a sad, lyrical and mystical story. The story of a young woman pushed away for being different, ill treated by the people who should have welcomed her, who should have been kinder. She could have helped them, been a useful member of their community. I really felt for her.
As someone who lives with chronic pain, it resonated with me, fighting your own body is horrible, it leaves you exhausted and frustrated, add that to being alone and rejected by your community, and it’s no wonder that she finds an isolated island a sanctuary. Long before Prospero arrives and enslaves her son.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 