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“This atmospheric novel is exquisitely written. Set on an island off the coast of Scotland, after WWI has ended and before WWII has begun, the magic of the island is subtle, but present from the start, and it has kept Leigh Welles away from home for years. The death of her father brings her return to the island on the same day as the return of the sluagh, the ominous birdlike creatures who carry with them the souls of the dead. The story is haunting, the characters flawed, the love story subtle and well-earned, and I was riveted from start to finish. For fans of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Adrienne Young's Spells for Forgetting, this novel explores themes of love, loss, and redemption, and you are going to love it.”
— Juliet • Books on the Bosque
The islanders have only three rules: don't stick your nose where it's not wanted, don't mention the war, and never let your guard down during October.
Leigh Welles has not set foot in on the island in years, but when she finds herself called home from a disappointing life on the Scottish mainland by her father's unexpected death, she is determined to forget the sorrows of the past—her mother's abandonment, her brother's icy distance, the unspeakable tragedy of World War II—and start fresh. Fellow islander Iain MacTavish, a RAF veteran with his eyes on the sky and his head in the past, is also in desperate need of a new beginning. A young widower, Iain struggles to return to the normal life he knew before the war.
But this October is anything but normal. This October, the sluagh are restless. The ominous, bird-like creatures of Celtic legend—whispered to carry the souls of the dead—have haunted the islanders for decades, but in the war's wake, there are more wandering souls and more sluagh. When a local boy disappears, Leigh and Iain are thrown together to investigate the truth at the island's dark heart and reveal hidden secrets of their own.
Emma Seckel is an award-winning writer and photographer living in Toronto, Canada.
Ruth Urquhart trained at East 15 Acting School and has spent the last twenty years working as an actor in theater, film, TV, and education. She is an Audible Approved Producer and has narrated over 100 titles. Among many other things, she has toured internationally and appeared in an Irish sitcom Give My Head Peace and the feature film Puckoon. She runs her own theater company and is a published playwright (Tea with Mrs. Pankhurst). Her forte is character work, and she has an excellent ear for accents. A native Scot, she was raised in Scotland with English parents; she quickly became bilingual in English and Scottish accents, speaking in an English accent at home and a Scottish one at school. She loves narrating audiobooks and has recorded a wide variety of genres requiring all sorts of different characters and dialects. She lives in Yorkshire, England, with her partner, two children, and an array of animals.