I'll start off this review by saying that I absolutely love witches. I've been fascinated by them since childhood and I'm ashamed to say that it wasn't until my late teens that I learnt that they were not entirely fictional beings. The concept of witchcraft and the belief in its existence have persisted throughout recorded history, and there are some many different viewpoints on what witches really are. Sadly, often women and men who were believed to 'have the witching way' were hunted down and killed - which is something that this story wonderfully explores.

Finbar Hawkins' 'Witch' is set in the 17th century during the witch hunts in the West Country. The story follows Evey, who, alongside her younger sister Dill, witnesses the murder of their mother. She has a desperate need for revenge, because, she she later explains to her friend Anne, she will otherwise never feel free. But Evey was explicitly asked by her mother to look after her younger sister, and she struggles to reconcile this with the task that she has set herself. Eventually, feeling guilty, she leaves Dill with a coven of witches, and sets off on her way.

Evey's journey takes her on many unexpected twists and turns, as one by one she hunts down the men who killed her mother. In the process, she learns a lot about herself, about the importance of family and about the support that came come from unexpected places.

Finbar Hawkins' descriptions of the setting were just sensational and really gave me the sense that I was there, a willing participant in Evey's journey. This is a particularly beautiful passage, in which the heroine dresses up in a noblewoman's clothes, given to her by her friend Anne. She suddenly fears that she has lost the scrying stone that used to belong to her mother:

Soon the track turned beside a lake, silver in its stillness. On the far side stood a line of trees like subjects along the way, where a heron, that silent king, watched the water.

I saw us there. A fine lady upon her high steed. I saw her cloak flowing, her dragon dress beaded and beautiful. I saw her looking at me from her hood, her hands gripping the reins, he bag slug about her.

The stone! I had left it upon Anne's floor, still rolling at her feet. I had left it.

No!

I drove my hand deep into the bag. And my heart started to find it, waiting for my touch. I closed my hand to its cool hardness.

'Witch' is a breathtaking story with a highly climactic ending, which I felt would work brilliantly on screen. I would thoroughly recommend it to those readers who, like me, love a touch of 'magick.'