Critiques en avant-premièreGus Smith

Alison Rigg, rising star of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and part-time witch, is in Northumberland to investigate reports of BSE where no BSE should be. Now her body has been found lying by a stream: she is still alive but her soul has fled, no one knows where. The only one to come close is Isabel, an electively mute seven-year-old who doesn’t speak to people but who speaks to animals all the time. She senses what forces are at work on the moors, but she doesn’t understand them and she certainly can’t tell anyone about them. Smith tells his story with the rhythm and plausibility of a folk tale and mixes the look and feel, the light and air of the Northumberland moors with a force of evil that hits the reader like a slap in the face. “The grey hills of Northumberland are pervaded by ancient evil and modern sickness in Gus Smith’s remarkable novel of occult and psychological horror, Feather and Bone. A strong sense of place and some fascinatingly complex characters are accompanied by a worldly knowledge of everything from the BSE crisis to the workings of the tabloid press. Convincingly, Smith shows us ultimate evil in conflict with flawed, basically good characters, and makes us believe in both.” – Roz Kaveney We are able to offer Feather and Bone in .epub and .mobi