The Waiting Sands & The Devil on Lammas Night

Dearest Raye… I’ m writing to ask if you can possibly come to Ruthven for a few days. My twenty–first birthday falls next Sunday… I would feel much less frightened if you were beside me until after midnight on Saturday.” Dependable Rachel Lord hasn’t heard from her school friend Decima Mannering for over two years when, out of the blue, she is invited to Ruthven, the fairytale Scottish castle her friend will inherit on her coming of age. Her arrival is met with relief by Decima, who is convinced her husband Charles means her harm. Is Decima in her right mind? Or is Rachel being duped by her worldlier friend? As the eve of Decima’s twenty–first birthday approaches, a shocking event leaves Rachel with no doubt.Miss Howatch's Wales-based coven is cosy indeed; the attendants of that oddly magnetic young man, Tristan Poole, are middle-aged and anxious to please, although they're apt to foul up their assignments. The group inhabits the Court of Walter Colwyn under the guise of a natural foods society. Poole is pretty much in control of Walter and the assorted relatives that flock in for one reason or another. There are two murders by possessed animals, a drugged bride and a Lammas whoopla is underway when a child sends Poole's possessor off in a puff of brimstone. Just the right breezy tone for this kind of amusement which zips along like the Old Harry.--Kirkus