The Valley of Ravens
Mid-Wales, present day. After being accused of murdering one of her patients, Eve, a healer, has fled her home in Suffolk to stay with her friend Ann. Eve soon falls in love with an abandoned cottage known as Tŷ’r Wrach – the witch’s house, which she is determined to make her forever home.
She’s not alone in the house, however. The spirit of Alys remains, who in her own time, back in the 13th century, was also a healer. Alys seems happy for Eve to be there, as she sees in her a kindred spirit. But locals believe the ghost could be dangerous because of a curse that has plagued them and the cottage’s inhabitants for centuries – a curse linked to a turning point in Welsh history when the last true Prince of Wales was killed.
Worried for Eve, Ann calls another friend of hers, Jo Clifford, for help. Dedicated fans of Barbara Erskine will recognise this character from her very first novel, Lady of Hay, and so for them this latest offering is unmissable. (I think the ‘present day’ setting is deliberately vague to allow Jo Clifford to feature.)
Rather than actual time-slips or past-life regressions, the truth of what happened back in the 13th century is shown through a dual timeline and revealed to Eve through memories that are embedded in her surroundings and which come to her intuitively or in her dreams. Meanwhile, Eve is haunted by her own past just as much as the cottage’s.
At one point it is implied that the genealogy company Ancestry can help trace ancestors as far back as the 13th century, which is doubtful, but this is a delightfully cosy time-slip novel: fascinating, tragic Welsh history; mystery; romance; beautiful Welsh countryside; (mostly) friendly locals and a smattering of Welsh words.
