Pat McKillip read the first chapter of her latest novel at SF in SF, and I was sufficiently intrigued by it to go out and buy the book. It certainly starts differently. The story is set in a small coastal village suffering economic decline. Judd Cauley’s inn has few visitors, and those that do come are soon chased away by the awful cooking of Mrs. Quinn. Judd can’t afford a better cook. But things look up with the arrival of Ridley Dow, a mysterious scholar from the big town of Landringham who has a passion for books and a nose for mystery.

The love of books and stories suffuses the narrative, which threatens in some places to eat itself, but eventually everything resolves into a neat tale of magic set against am 18th Century background. As with all of Pat’s books, it is small but perfectly formed. I love reading them, but can never find much to say about them.