Witch Creek
A Wildlands Novel
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
In the backcountry of Yellowstone, evil moves below the surface . . .
Following Nine of Stars comes the next chapter in Laura Bickle's critically acclaimed Wildlands series
As the daughter of an alchemist, Petra Dee has battled supernatural horrors and experienced astonishing wonders. But there’s no magic on earth that can defeat her recent cancer diagnosis, or help find her missing husband, Gabriel. Still, she would bet all her remaining days that the answer to his disappearance lies in the dark subterranean world beneath the Rutherford Ranch on the outskirts of Temperance, Wyoming.
Gabe is being held prisoner by the sheriff and heir to the ranch, Owen Rutherford. Owen is determined to harness the power of the Tree of Life—and he needs Gabe to reveal its magic. Secretly, the sheriff has also made a pact to free a creature of the underground, a flesh-devouring mermaid. Muirenn has vowed to exact vengeance on Gabe, who helped imprison her, but first . . . she's hungry. Once freed, she will swim into Yellowstone—to feed.
With her coyote sidekick Sig, Petra must descend into the underworld to rescue Gabe before it's too late . . . for both of them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Bickle's introspective fourth novel featuring geologist Petra Dee (after 2016's Nine of Stars), Petra has recently begun treatment for an aggressive form of leukemia, and she's desperately missing her new husband, the formerly immortal Gabriel Manget, who's vanished from the town of Temperance, Wyo. He would never abandon her, so Petra decides to discontinue her chemo and go find him, at any cost. Unbeknownst to her, Gabe has been kidnapped by Owen Rutherford, a cop who wants revenge. Gabe killed Owen's cousin Sal, who once reigned over the Lunaria, the Tree of Life that gave Gabe his immortality after he was hanged from it and resurrected. Owen has also unleashed on Temperance a ravenous creature called the Mermaid. Petra, accompanied by her human friend Maria, wolf-woman Nine, and coyote Sig, sets off on what may be her very last adventure into the spirit world and beyond. The looming possibility of Petra's death makes the story harrowing, and longtime fans will appreciate new insight into Gabe's past as a Pinkerton agent. Bickle's story is a rich, surreal, alchemical brew, as wondrous as the magic that infuses her fascinating weird west setting.
