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Book Log 28/2013 - James Hetley: The Summer Country
I read Jim Hetley's debut novel when it first came out and again for review purposes and I have to say that I'm still in awe of his characterisation skills.
OK, briefly: Maureen Pierce works a dull job (the night shift in a convenience store), is paranoid (but not without reason), and talks to trees. She thinks she's mad, and her sister Jo agrees. And she does, indeed, have some serious mental health problems – most of them stemming from the fact that she doesn't fit into the world – or, at least, not in this world.
Her heritage (and nefarious magic) drags her from Maine to a mythical land, once full of warmth and sunlight, but now Dark and Dangerous (capital Ds intended), along with Brian Arthur Pendragon Albion, a Templar of a race of Ancient Ones, her sister, Jo and Jo's boyfriend, David. There are twisty plots afoot as dark witch Fiona and her brother get to work.
The characters are darkly flawed but Hetley makes you care. The world is richly drawn. Yes it's violent and sometimes brutal, but Hetley draws on the darker side of Celtic myth for his inspiration and it works.
OK, briefly: Maureen Pierce works a dull job (the night shift in a convenience store), is paranoid (but not without reason), and talks to trees. She thinks she's mad, and her sister Jo agrees. And she does, indeed, have some serious mental health problems – most of them stemming from the fact that she doesn't fit into the world – or, at least, not in this world.
Her heritage (and nefarious magic) drags her from Maine to a mythical land, once full of warmth and sunlight, but now Dark and Dangerous (capital Ds intended), along with Brian Arthur Pendragon Albion, a Templar of a race of Ancient Ones, her sister, Jo and Jo's boyfriend, David. There are twisty plots afoot as dark witch Fiona and her brother get to work.
The characters are darkly flawed but Hetley makes you care. The world is richly drawn. Yes it's violent and sometimes brutal, but Hetley draws on the darker side of Celtic myth for his inspiration and it works.