Set in England in 1362, Riley's charming conclusion to her trilogy that began with A Vision of Light
finds Margaret of Ashbury still having amusing conversations with God ("As Supreme Judge of All Things, I assure you that you are one of the half-dozen most talkative of My creations"). Margaret's scrofulous and quarrelsome father-in-law plans to use her marriageable and well-dowered daughter, Cecily, as a bargaining chip in a squabble about riparian rights and borders. But the creature who dwells in the spring in question, the eponymous Water Devil, has other plans. Fortunately, Margaret has a lovely collection of con artists and mountebanks to help her save the incorrigible Cecily from being wed to an aged lecher. But who will save her son from the Water Devil? This is a sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, but always compassionate love story with a perfect ending. (Feb.)
