Red Runs the Witch’s Thread
1722 – Paisley, Scotland. Widow Christian Millar refuses to sell her almost-but-not-quite-perfect white thread to a dealer, who offers her a pittance for what he calls ‘witch’s thread’. The reason for Christian’s manic obsession with trying to produce perfectly white thread is slowly revealed as her story unwinds.
Her tortured visions of blood and her fear of the screaming black ravens that sound so very like those of a baby all stem from an experience when she was eleven – some 25 years earlier. She was an unwilling witness to the sights and sounds of the bloody birth of her sister, and the seeds of her terror are watered into fruition when a maid starkly explains to her the terrible things that men and women do in the dark and what her own fate will be once she becomes a woman, once her own blood starts flowing.
This is a story of childish fear that turns into adult dread; of shame, guilt and lies that result in the death of babies and the hanging and burning of seven witches; of a woman tormented by nightmares; of a mind unravelling; of a woman trying to cleanse her own tortured soul.
The title of this gothic, uncanny novella is pure genius, and I can guarantee that you will remember this beautifully written though disturbing book long after you have closed the covers. Highly recommended.
