C. S. Feldman

Nessa Donnelly has been happily married to her husband Reg for four years. In all that time, she has never once mentioned her family - claiming only that she has been on her own for a long time. The truth is that Nessa Donnelly does have family - her father, Hugh and brother Orin - but she hasn't seen either of them for many, many years. Although she doesn't understand what caused their initial estrangement, she can't completely quell the sneaking suspicion that it is her choice of career - a sculptress in a family of stonemasons - that has made her something of a disappointment to her father.

While it seems that her career doesn't exactly please her father, Nessa would say that she absolutely loves sculpting and honestly can't see herself doing anything else. She may not be content with the current state of their relationship, but she has somehow managed to come to terms with the way things are between herself and her family. Nessa never actually expected to see her eccentric father ever again, so it comes as something of a surprise to her to receive a phone call from the hospital in her hometown. According to his doctors, Hugh Donnelly lies in a persistently comatose state for which they have no explanation.

Although he is comatose, his vital signs seem to be deteriorating; so his doctors are hoping that Nessa can shed some light on her father's inexplicable condition. Horrified to hear that her father's condition is so dire, Nessa rushes back home to be with him. Since she had always believed that the Donnelly family came from hardier stock, she is beyond stunned to discover her father is actually perilously close to death. As much as she would like to help them, Nessa isn't exactly sure how much information she can provide to her father's doctors - after all, her brother Orin is much closer to their father than she is - so he would have a better understanding of their father's medical issues.

However, Nessa assures his doctors that she will do her best to help them discover what is wrong with her father. The search requires that she move back in to her childhood home for a while, and she is astonished when she sees the dilapidated condition of her father's house. As Nessa begins her research, long-buried family secrets emerge, and she slowly begins to realize that those secrets were kept hidden from her for a specific reason; a reason that she can't fully comprehend.

She also realizes that there is something in the woods behind her father's house; something that he never told her about. Although she doesn't know how she knows it, Nessa understands that there is actually something in the woods that defies any sort of logical explanation. She has the vaguely unsettled feeling that whatever resides in the forest has been there since she was a child.

And, in what is perhaps the most disturbing realization of all, Nessa slowly comes to believe that she is not quite as alone in her father's house as she thought she was...

It probably won't come as much of a surprise to my readers, but I really do enjoy reading stories based on Irish folklore. In my opinion, the plot of this story was intriguing and I was curious to see how it would develop. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and found that the story was very well-developed and easily paced for its length - definitely an A! Actually, I'd be very interested in finding out if Ms. Feldman will write a sequel to this story.… (meer)