The consummate ease with which the background of this unusual and powerful historical novel [The Thirteenth Member] is set masks the author's careful research into Scotland in the 1590s and the matter and manner of witchcraft. The characters are compelling. Adam, orphaned by a cruel law and now charity boy-of-all-work to Baillie Seton, is bitter towards the world until he unwillingly learns compassion for Gillie, the frail kitchen-maid who will never stand up for herself or resist circumstances. A born healer, Gillie was vowed as a baby by her mother to witchcraft, which she hates, yet is terrified of death if she betrays the coven.

The alchemist-recluse who has taught Adam book-learning is tortured also (perhaps a thought too melodramatically) by the burden of a terrible secret, but when witchcraft becomes allied to a plot to kill the king, he has to share his secret with these two...