A Spell for Drowning

Ferrier debuts with an immersive historical fantasy drenched in Cornish seawater and the blood of the people that coastline harbors. In 1779, Kensa, the daughter of a hanged smuggler, is shunned by the townsfolk of the fishing village of Portscatho. When she and her half-sister, Elowen, find the body of an ancient sea monster washed up on the rocky beach, Kensa sees an opportunity: the finder will be the village’s next wise woman, or witch, and though frail Elowen was first by right, Kensa claims her sister’s glory. She wins an apprenticeship with the current wise woman, Isolde, a role in which she is still treated as an outcast, but a useful one. When Elowen’s health worsens, however, and Isolde’s body also begins to fail, Kensa learns that the Old Ways demand more than she ever dreamed, and that some things come at a price that might be impossible for her to pay. Meanwhile, the treacherous God of the Sea, the Bucka, whose long-standing pact with Isolde protects Portscatho from the raging ocean, is more than ready for Kensa to fail. Ferrier crafts a thrilling yarn as dark, rich, and bloody as folk stories that have lasted centuries in the telling. This is a fairy tale with teeth. (Jan.)