Wisp of a Thing: A Novel of the Tufa (Tufa Novels) - Hardcover

Bledsoe, Alex

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765334135 ISBN 13: 9780765334138

Publisher: Tor Books, 2013

Synopsis

Wisp of a Thing: a unique contemporary fantasy where magic is hidden in plain sight and age-old rivalries simmer just beneath the surface

Alex Bledsoe's The Hum and the Shiver was named one of the Best Fiction Books by Kirkus Reviews. Now Bledsoe returns to the isolated ridges and hollows of the Smoky Mountains to spin an equally enchanting tale of music and fairy magic older than the hills.

Touched by a very public tragedy, musician Rob Quillen comes to Cloud County, Tennessee, in search of a song that might ease his aching heart. All he knows of the mysterious and reclusive Tufa is what he has read on the Internet: They are an enigmatic clan of swarthy, black-haired mountain people whose historical roots are lost in myth and controversy. Some people say that when the first white settlers came to the Appalachians centuries ago, they found the Tufa already there. Others hint that Tufa blood brings special gifts.

Rob finds both music and mystery in the mountains. Close-lipped locals guard their secrets, even as Rob gets caught up in a subtle power struggle he can't begin to comprehend. A vacationing wife goes missing, raising suspicions of foul play, and a strange feral girl runs wild in the woods, howling in the night like a lost spirit.

Change is coming to Cloud County, and only the night wind knows what part Rob will play when the last leaf falls from the Widow's Tree…and a timeless curse must be broken at last.

Enter the captivating world of the fae in Alex Bledsoe's Tufa novels

The Hum and the Shiver
Wisp of a Thing
Long Black Curl
Chapel of Ease
Gather Her Round

About this title

About the Author

ALEX BLEDSOE is the author of The Hum and the Shiver, as well as the novels in the Eddie LaCrosse series: The Sword-Edged Blonde, Burn Me Deadly, and Dark Jenny.

Reviews

One of the very good things about Bledsoe’s latest novel is that we can’t tell, until we’re well into the book, whether it’s a fantasy or offbeat mainstream. Musician Rob Quillen, a contestant on a TV singing competition, is devastated when his girlfriend, who was being flown to Hollywood to surprise him for the show’s final episode, is killed when her plane crashes. Told about the Tufa, a mysterious group of people living in the Great Smoky Mountains, Rob heads off to Needsville, Tennessee, in search of a song that can heal a broken heart. At first, the small town feels a little isolated, its people a bit quirky to Rob’s big-city eyes. But soon he begins to notice odd things: a graveyard that seems to have vanished when he returns to it; strange, humanlike, howling sounds from the woods. This is a very subtle book; like Graham Masterton, Bledsoe relies on the slow accumulation of tantalizing hints to give the reader a sense of something going on in the space between the words on the page. A chilling mix of fantasy, realism, and a touch of horror. --David Pitt

Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0765334135
• ISBN 13: 9780765334138
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352