Critiques en avant-premièreGary Warner

The definition of a sanctuary is 'a place of refuge'.

Why would Melissa Jones ever need such a thing? She's led an ordinary life and, as far as she can recall, has never angered anyone. But an invitation to attend the funeral of an old school friend, of whom she has no recollection, and a meeting there with a woman called Danika, who is convinced Melissa's life is in danger, persuade her that she may, after all, need that sanctuary if she wants to stay alive.

Overseeing the work of the sanctuary is Verity Trask. Her duty is to ensure the safety of all the women who find themselves in her care, including Melissa. It's a duty she takes very seriously as Verity understands the true nature of the threat they all face, a threat that exists because of a single, horrific event centuries ago, an event known simply as the incident at Brathy Beck.

If your life is overshadowed by an insidious, ever-present darkness, then perhaps, if you’re lucky, your defences will become stronger and you’ll learn how to survive the worst days. Mattie Hayes lives her life with such a darkness, but she has learnt to cope, with a little help from her friends. Or to be precise, one friend – her only friend, Lucy, who came to her rescue in their school days and has been coming to her rescue ever since. But when, on one of her increasingly rarer visits, Lucy asks Mattie if she could stay with her for longer, Mattie’s instincts tell her that something is wrong. And then there are Mattie’s dreams. Dreams that take her to a beautiful place, to a young woman called Sarah, and to a past that may hold the answer, not only to the shadows that pursue her, but also to the real reason behind her enduring friendship with Lucy.

Following a witchhunter attack on a coven at Cenon in France, January Grant is sent to Monaco to exact revenge on the architect of the atrocity. But the carefully planned assault on the witchhunter’s Monte Carlo residence does not go well for January. In the fallout from the mission, Claire Darblay, January’s controller, knows she will come under even more pressure from those within the Sisterhood who vehemently oppose the use of what they see as an assassin employed by their historically peaceful Order. And then Claire receives a cry for help from an enemy of the Sisterhood. Should she agree to assist and risk everything at a time when her rank within her Order is already precarious, or turn away and abandon an innocent young girl to her fate? Whatever her decision, there will be consequences that will deeply affect Claire, January, and those close to them.

Following a witchhunter attack on a coven at Cenon in France, January Grant is sent to Monaco to exact revenge on the architect of the atrocity. But the carefully planned assault on the witchhunter’s Monte Carlo residence does not go well for January. In the fallout from the mission, Claire Darblay, January’s controller, knows she will come under even more pressure from those within the Sisterhood who vehemently oppose the use of what they see as an assassin employed by their historically peaceful Order. And then Claire receives a cry for help from an enemy of the Sisterhood. Should she agree to assist and risk everything at a time when her rank within her Order is already precarious, or turn away and abandon an innocent young girl to her fate? Whatever her decision, there will be consequences that will deeply affect Claire, January, and those close to them.

January Grant hunts the witch hunters. Her superior, Claire Darblay, assigns her to take the fight to those who, even today, persecute the Sisterhood. So, when Claire asks January to retrieve two young runaways who have absconded from the Burgrun House Coven, she can't help feeling that this is a job more suited to one of the Sisterhood's social workers. And when January, a Sister used to action, is also tasked with the seemingly diplomatic mission of finding the reason for the girls' decision to abscond, it seems that things couldn't get any worse... until her mother calls with news that her younger sister is also missing. Could the two events be linked? Cordelia Trent, the enigmatic Elder of the Burgrun House Coven, is in no mood to compromise. She wants the runaways back. But this coven hides a deadly secret. Can January get to the truth before any more Sisters pay the price of that secret? The Spring Child's Whisper is the fourth book in the The Witches of Marston Dornie series.

Can it ever be justified to knowingly put a Sister in harm's way, even if in doing so you may save another close to you? There are devastating consequences for all those caught up in the terrifying aftermath of one woman's attempt to salvage a future from a tragic and shocking past. A sequel to 'A Far Cry from Summer' and 'An Echo of Autumn'