From Publishers Weekly
This new novel by the author of Blitzcat and Ghost Abbey evinces a crackling pace that will keep pulses racing. While vacationing in East Anglia, Rose and her children come across a deserted cottage that, on a whim, they rent for a week. Unbeknownst to Rose, the cottage's previous inhabitant--who disappeared seven years before--was a Cunning Man, or village witch. Rose's tenancy of the Cunning Man's house arouses the suspicions of the villagers; it takes only a few unfortunate incidents to convince them that Rose and her family are witches-in-training--and need to be permanently disposed of. Told entirely from Rose's point of view (an unusual choice for a YA novel, especially one in which two of the three protagonists are children), the narrative builds to a truly frightening climax. As the plot ticks merrily along, moving with a tidy deadliness that calls to mind Hitchcock's creepiest films, even the most commonplace events acquire a sinister cast. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up-- It's hard to feel much sympathy for Rose, the 38-year-old mother of two who is the protagonist of Westall's novel, but that's as much his fault as hers for he has failed to create a fully realized character. Instead he has given readers a stock ``damsel in distress,'' the kind of dimwit who would insist on going alone, on a dark and stormy night, into the basement of a haunted house. Only this time it's a rundown cottage on the remote coast of Norfolk, where Rose has taken the kids on what is ostensibly a holiday but is, in reality, a flight from her husband, Philip. Consider that the cottage she rents is without electricity or plumbing, is unreachable by automobile, has no telephone, and, of course, turns out to have belonged to old Sepp Yaxley, who up and vanished seven years ago. The locals (extras from a road company of The Village of the Damned ) have been afraid to go near the place ever since, for Sepp was the man to see if you wanted your warts removed or a blight placed on your neighbor's crops. Sepp may be gone but his cat (or is it, as some believe, his familiar spirit) puts in an appearance and things get downright ugly. And the uglier they get, the more Rose dithers and wrings her hands, helplessly unable to fasten onto the obvious course of action: to toss the kids and the bags into the car and get out of there. Poor Rose. Poor readers. (Speaking of readers: this is not a young adult novel. It can be read by students, certainly, but its point of view, its protagonist, and its sensibility are all completely adult.) --Michael Cart, formerly at Beverly Hills Public Library
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
