The Faerie Hills
Set in autumn 1373 on windswept Colonsay Isle in the Scottish Hebrides, The Faerie Hills picks up where A Mass for the Dead, the first book in this engaging mystery series, ended. Once again, amateur sleuth Muirteach MacPhee investigates, this time searching for eight-year-old Niall, the missing grandson of the Lord of the Isles. In a setting drenched in faerie lore, the author nicely intertwines the beliefs of the locals (who are sure faeries stole the boy while he was hunting faerie gold) with all-too-human greed and trickery. Once again, young Muirteach’s love interest, Mariota Beaton, the daughter of a physician from Islay, is back to provide romance and secret challenges of her own. Written with a lilting cadence that nicely captures the feel of the 14th-century Scottish Isles, the book offers readers a map, a cast of characters, and a glossary to illuminate this most welcome, atypical setting.
