Stephen Hayes: The Enchanted Grove (2021-29)
...and this is Stephen Hayes's most recent novel, a direct sequel to _Of Wheels and Witches_. It is now the Christmas holiday, which is summer in South Africa, and Jeffery and Catherine return from their various homes to Eerstelling, where they are soon reunited with their friend Janet. This is going to be pretty disjointed, because to summarize in a more connected way, I would nearly have to type in the whole book. It's that tightly wound together.
- On a horseback ride, the three see something that the police do not want them to see.
- Janet's older sister is still into mystical witchy things, and this time wants to tell fortunes by tarot, using only the Greater Trumps. The tidings are, predictably, dire.
- Barry, the son of a high-ranking local police officer, takes to bullying the three younger kids: first verbally, but then onto bigger and better things, like a horsewhip, and like taking them briefly captive and forcing them to take a puff of marijuana. A lesser officer gives Barry what he says is a jackal's skull that has been enchanted by a witch, and tells him to use it to put a good fright into the threesome.
- Jefferey, to rescue a small child, enters a grove (not the titular grove) of poisonous, witch-haunted trees. Here he does find the child, tied to a post atop which is the skull; he hears maniacal laughter, and after setting the child free, flees, encountering along the wat a jackal and a green mamba. Jefferey is convinced that the jackal is Barry shape-shifting like a werewolf.
- In a semi-ruinous aboriginal village (the residents have been forced out by the government), they have tea with an old man who is the sole resident. As they look at the village's church, Barry surprises them, and grabs Janet. Jefferey head-butts him in the stomach - and he (Barry) vanishes. Their story is not fully believed, and the old man is arrested for the kidnapping or murder of Barry.
- Woven in among all this is a blue hair bobble which seems to have been enchanted so that it takes people where they need to go.
...and then things get _really_ complicated, and turn bad for Jefferey, Catherine, and Janet.
Hayes's storytelling here is mature and sure, never missing a beat or dropping a plot thread. As with the two previous books, Saints have an important role to play, though more subtly than in the first and especially the second. There are ikons, but they aren't as central to the plot.
I hope Hayes will continue writing his Williams-influenced stories.
- On a horseback ride, the three see something that the police do not want them to see.
- Janet's older sister is still into mystical witchy things, and this time wants to tell fortunes by tarot, using only the Greater Trumps. The tidings are, predictably, dire.
- Barry, the son of a high-ranking local police officer, takes to bullying the three younger kids: first verbally, but then onto bigger and better things, like a horsewhip, and like taking them briefly captive and forcing them to take a puff of marijuana. A lesser officer gives Barry what he says is a jackal's skull that has been enchanted by a witch, and tells him to use it to put a good fright into the threesome.
- Jefferey, to rescue a small child, enters a grove (not the titular grove) of poisonous, witch-haunted trees. Here he does find the child, tied to a post atop which is the skull; he hears maniacal laughter, and after setting the child free, flees, encountering along the wat a jackal and a green mamba. Jefferey is convinced that the jackal is Barry shape-shifting like a werewolf.
- In a semi-ruinous aboriginal village (the residents have been forced out by the government), they have tea with an old man who is the sole resident. As they look at the village's church, Barry surprises them, and grabs Janet. Jefferey head-butts him in the stomach - and he (Barry) vanishes. Their story is not fully believed, and the old man is arrested for the kidnapping or murder of Barry.
- Woven in among all this is a blue hair bobble which seems to have been enchanted so that it takes people where they need to go.
...and then things get _really_ complicated, and turn bad for Jefferey, Catherine, and Janet.
Hayes's storytelling here is mature and sure, never missing a beat or dropping a plot thread. As with the two previous books, Saints have an important role to play, though more subtly than in the first and especially the second. There are ikons, but they aren't as central to the plot.
I hope Hayes will continue writing his Williams-influenced stories.