HISTORICAL

THE FAMILIARS by Stacey Halls (Zaffre £12.99, 432 pp) JAMeS I’s wellknown obsession with witches helped to unleash fear throughout his kingdom. The notorious Pendle witch trials of 1612 stemmed from this.

Following three miscarriages, 17- year-old Fleet wood Shuttleworth is again pregnant. her pregnancy is precarious, and when she encounters the enigmatic Alice Gray, a knowledgeable midwife, the desperate Fleetwood is determined to employ her.

Alice, however, is implicated in the witch hysteria gripping Pendle and the surrounding Lancastrian communities, and Fleetwood needs to fight to keep her.

Fresh, deliberately uncluttered writing typifies a strong, confident debut with a perennially absorbing subject as its focus.

If the hint of a feminist agenda is not entirely convincing for the period, the vivid characterisation and the energy of the novel carries it. THE GLASS WOMAN by Caroline Lea (Michael Joseph £12.99, 400 pp) The remote outposts of 17thcentury Iceland are harsh, superstition-ridden places where even reading and writing are viewed with mistrust. Rosa is educated, but her priest father is dead and her mother is ailing.

Although attracted to Pall, she agrees to marry Jon, the rich chieftain of another settlement. her new husband is a mystery — there are dark rumours about his first wife — and his righthand man, Petur, is rumoured to be from the huldufolk who feast on souls.

Then the body of a woman surfaces from the ice-encrusted sea and Rosa is faced with terrifying possibilities.

Intensely written and atmospheric, with an unusual setting, this is a stark evocation of a community where fear of the outsider is rife and unsettling. THE NIGHT TIGER by Yangsze Choo (Quercus £16.99, 480 pp) OSTeNSIBLy a murder-mystery, this is set in Thirties Malaya and, written by a Malayan of Chinese descent, fuses folklore, superstition, magic and myth. eleven-year-old Ren is tasked to find his dead master’s missing finger within 49 days, otherwise his soul will not rest easy.

Meanwhile Ji Lin, an apprentice dressmaker moonlighting as a dancehall girl, is given a grisly souvenir by one of her customers.

As a result, both Ren and Ji Lin are sucked into a dangerous dream world of coincidence and ghost tigers.

The slightly wooden structure is at odds with the lush detail and interesting characters.

Nevertheless, I was willingly propelled into a fascinating and exotic world where perception and truth can be interpreted in many ways.