Joanna was running, mile after endless mile of running. Panting. Screaming. The black-robed man was behind her, gaining with every step! It seemed the faster she tried to run the slower her legs moved. She was now running in slow motion, agonizing minutes passing between each step, and the man was gaining, until he was only a step behind her! Then his evil hand grabbed her hair, which was blowing behind her in the wind. She heard herself screaming, and it was for real, not just a dream now. Hands were clawing at her face tearing her flesh! She jerked away and opened her eyes. She was alone. It was a dream.
The Story Behind This Book
My ex-mother-in-law who grew up in Hampshire in rural England told me a story from her childhood that inspired THE COVEN CONSPIRACY. The time was the mid-early 1900's and the countryside consisted of small villages, huge green open fields and forestland. An old lady whom locals believed to be a witch, lived alone in a cabin deep in the woods. It was told by the locals that the witch was a shape shifter, and could turn into a fox. Once when my mother-in-law was a teenager, she and a friend were in a wooded area across from an old stone church, surrounded by a six-foot high rock wall and a heavy black wrought iron gate. My ex-mother-in-law said she saw the old lady walking along the road toward the church. She and her friend stayed hidden. She said the old woman stopped in front of the wrought iron gate, then began a transformation. Her head began changing shape and her body contorted toward the ground, her hands changing into claws. When the transformation was complete, the old witch had shape shifted into a fox. The fox squeezed between the vertical wrought iron rods of the gate and trotted out of sight behind the right side of the stone wall. My ex-mother-in-law said she waited a long time, but neither the fox nor the witch reappeared. She swore to me this story is true. Do I believe it? It's hard for me to believe. Do I believe my mother-in-law? Yes. Years later I married her daughter at that old stone church. The first thing I noticed when I walked through the gate was, on the right side of the church in the direction in which the fox disappeared, was a graveyard.
Praise and Reviews
This is my first time reading a novel by Youngblood Hawk, and I must say that I really enjoyed The Coven Conspiracy. The premise is this: a young artist, Joanna, revisits a secluded cabin outside of a small mountain town to be alone to paint to her heart's content. However, immediately upon entering the town she finds the townspeople unwelcoming and strange. Undaunted, Joanna makes a few friends who help her acclimate to the mountains and she begins her work. Things take a frightening turn when Joanna is visited by a coven of witches, who are the subject of local foklore and the objects of fear in the small community. The Coven Conspiracy follows Joanna on her journey of discovery... of her surroundings, the townspeople and, ultimately, of herself.
To say that the ending was sprung as a well designed surprise is putting it mildly. Youngblood Hawke took a conspiracy of witches, an old town and a scary forest and put it into a story of secrets, betrayal and years of fear.
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