Wolfsbane

Philip’s third Rebel Angels fantasy novel (following Bloodstone) finds the Bloodstone himself, Rory MacGregor, popping back and forth between our world and the Sithe’s whenever he can sneak a trip across the Veil. On one such trip he returns with endangered teen Hannah Falconer. When Rory’s father, Sithe dun leader Seth, allows her to stay so that isolated Rory can have a friend, Rory grows more attached to her and discovers that she has a prior Sithe connection. But Sithe queen Kate NicNiven still means to destroy the Veil and needs Rory to do so, and she sets in motion a plan to wipe out Seth and his followers. Centering around the conflicts between Seth and Rory, Seth’s newly-returned love Fionnuala MacAngus, and the fallout from Seth’s half-brother’s death, most of this installment is character development, thread-tying, and Hannah’s outsider perspective, concluding with Kate’s attack and the devastating results. Philip continues to excel at depicting relationship and character growth, and the slow boil to action among the long-lived but increasingly impatient Sithe. (July)