“Sealey Head is a quiet and seemingly ordinary village, save for the mysterious Bell that tolls at sunset. The townsfolk have made up tales to explain it (a lost ship beneath the waves), but truly no one knows what it is.
Judd Cauley runs an Inn overlooking the sea. He has a love of books and is happy when his often vacant Inn gains a visitor, Ridley Dow, who is a scholar with many books who is interested in the mystery of the Bell. Ridley is stylish for a bookish researcher, having come all the way from the great and bustling city of Landringham.
The mystery seems to involve Aislin House, where the elderly Lady Eglatyne lies abed, waiting to die. There is a hesitancy to call the heir living the high life in Landringham. There are rooms that sometimes open to another place that only some of the House's inhabitants can see. One of these is the maid, Emma, whose mother is the village's wise-woman who lives in the woods in a house made from a living tree. Emma can see the Princess Ysabo, from that other world, who seems caught in a strange enchantment.
There is a nice mix of Austenian drawing-room romance and classic fairy tales with beautiful Princesses and handsome Knights, along with an evil sorcerer and dark enchantment. The characters are sympathetic and well-drawn, even if we don't really become intensely involved with them due to lack of on-stage time. McKillip is an old hand at creating fantasy with a magical, fairy-tale feeling, and this certainly shows well here.
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aprillee wrote this review Wednesday, May 20 2009.
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