The Witches of Bone Hill

if you want a deliciously spine-tingling book for the Halloween season, here ya go.

If it weren't for bad luck, real estate agent Cordelia Bone would have no luck at all. Her soon-to-be-ex-husband cheated on her (with her assistant, in their house). Not just that, but he's racked up a truckload of debt in her name, some of it with mob connections who are now looking to collect from her. She can't sell her house in Dallas without fixing the recently discovered black mold problem first. And then her estranged sister Eustace calls to tell her their one surviving relative, their great-aunt Augusta, has died and left them an inheritance in Connecticut. Well, maybe that will fix the money problem. So Eustace and Cordelia are off to Bellwick, Connecticut to collect an inheritance from a great-aunt they barely knew.

Why don't they know their great-aunt? Because their mother, Maggie, fled the old home place years ago. The sisters' childhood was spent in rough conditions, always on the move, always with their mother having one loser boyfriend after another. And then Maggie was murdered, a tattoo ripped from her very skin. So they have no idea what awaits them in Connecticut.

This story is about the power of family. The bitterness of a bond that chafes for too long. The importance of sisterhood. And most of all, it is about Cordelia and Eustace finding the voices that are truly theirs, the voices they never knew about because their mother tried to leave it all behind.

The house, Bone Hill, is truly a character in and of itself. The family attorney, Bennett Togers, tells the sisters that the house will make its will known, and it does. With all the happenings that can't be explained and that are well out of the ordinary, it's no wonder the town of Bellwick views the Bone family with, at best, suspicion.

The story itself gets real close to lines I don't like to cross with its very vivid descriptions of witchcraft and with some disturbing scenes involving animals. I do, however, appreciate the Norse mythology that is at the root of the sisters' – indeed, of their family's – power.

And the sisters themselves are wonderfully written characters. Eustace is the easygoing one, more able to adapt to her new circumstances. Cordelia, on the other hand, grew up with her ears full of Maggie's warnings – don't look at them, don't speak to them, and under no circumstances sing to them. She has a harder time adjusting, and she can't understand why Maggie would flee from family and drag her girls through a hard-knock life. All is revealed in time, though, as Cordelia comes to grasp the true strength she and Eustace can only have together.

This is a quick, compelling read that I finished in less than 24 hours. If you're looking for a book to give you the chills, full of vengeful spirits and newfound powers, this is it. I suggest you put The Witches of Bone Hill at the top of your October TBR.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a review copy. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.