Set in the same universe as the acclaimed All the Murmuring Bones and The Path of Thorns (one of Oprah Daily's Top 25 Fantasy Novels of 2022), this beautifully told Gothic fairy tale of ghosts, witches, deadly secrets and past sins, will be perfect for fans of Hannah Whitten and Ava Reid.
Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for
generations. The Briar family of witches run the town of Silverton,
caring for its inhabitants with their skills and magic. In the usual
scheme of things, they would be burnt for their sorcery, but the
church has given them dispensation in return for their protection of
the borders of the Darklands, where the much-feared Leech Lords
hold sway.
Ellie is being trained as a steward, administering for the town, and
warding off the insistent interest of the church. When her
grandmother dies suddenly, Ellie?s cousin Audra rises to the
position of Briar Witch, propelling Ellie into her new role. As she
navigates fresh challenges, an unexpected new ability to see and
speak to the dead leads her to uncover sinister family secrets,
stories of burnings, lost grimoires and evil spells. Reeling from one
revelation to the next, she seeks answers from the long dead and is
forced to decide who to trust, as a devastating plot threatens to
destroy everything the Briar witches have sacrificed so much to
build.
