Something Red

Rich in historical detail, this suspenseful coming-of-age fantasy grabs the reader with the facts of life in medieval England and the magic spells woven into its landscape. Hob, a 13-year-old orphan, has found a place with the traveling troupe of Mistress Molly, an Irish medicine woman who can speak with crows. Traveling south before winter, Hob helps guide Molly’s wagons while navigating the troubles of the road and the temptations of inns. Forced by rockslide and storm to seek shelter in Blanchefontaine, a Norman castle, the troupe soon realizes that the greatest danger, the Beast that has been harrowing the countryside, is now locked up inside with them. Debut novelist Nicholas brings a poetic turn to his prose (Molly hits a bull’s-eye with a dagger the way “a gardener carelessly flicks a pebble away from a plot he is weeding”) and introduces monks, Crusaders, tanners, foreign nobility, shape-shifters, and even oxen to bring his magical Middle Ages to splendid life. (Sept.)