Traveler, cleric, witch.
The villagers in the sleepy hamlet of Lychford are divided.
A supermarket wants to build a major branch on their border.
Some welcome the employment opportunities,
while some object to the modernization of the local environment.
Judith Mawson (local crank) knows the truth—that Lychford lies
on the boundary between two worlds,
and that the destruction of the border will open wide the gateways
to malevolent beings beyond imagination.
But if she is to have her voice heard,
she’s going to need the assistance of some unlikely allies…
Judith is one of the few people in Lychford who can see the Truth:
the proposed new supermarket will destroy the protection the town has against the beings that live on its borders.
But no-one believes a mad old woman.
Lizzie, the local vicar, should have been briefed about the town’s needs
when she took up her post.
But the old ways are being lost, and she has not been brought up to date.
Autumn, Lizzie’s childhood friend, who became estranged when Lizzie joined the church,
is a sceptical scientist, yet she runs the local magic shop.
She would be a key part of the town’s defence,
but she can’t bring herself to believe what happened to her in those lost years.
This is only 140pp long, so counts as a novella rather than a novel.
But it packs a lot of content into its relatively few pages, and
I found it to be a compelling story.
We get to see the menace of the proposed new supermarket unfold
through the eyes of three unlikely, and somewhat unwilling, allies.
After an excellent build-up, things come to a head rather quickly,
but with a satisfactory conclusion.
Although this one disaster has been averted, I’m sure there is more trouble
awaiting our trio around the corner.
