A Tangle in Slops - Softcover

Jeffrey E. Barlough

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0978763424 ISBN 13: 9780978763428

Publisher: Gresham & Doyle, 2011

Synopsis

When Ada Henslowe found herself called to distant Plumley, in Slopshire, to help her little orphaned cousin Mary Trefoil, she had no inkling of the strange adventures that were to follow. For Mary, whose mother had died in giving birth to her, and whose father Magnus, the master of Orkney Farm, had been slain by a wild beast of the marshes, was herself threatened now by the very same creature that had dispatched her father. Why had the monster returned to Plumley? Was its aim, as the servants feared, to eliminate, one by one, the Trefoils of Orkney Farm? Who had command of the beast, and what was his purpose in menacing the family? Or had he some other even more sinister end in view? And what of the apparition in the mossy-green mantle that had been frightening the citizens of Plumley? Was it indeed the ghost of Tronda Quickensbog, wise woman, enchantress, and soothsayer? Was it she who had orchestrated the death of Mary's father, in revenge perhaps for the supposed desecration of her relics which he had unearthed at Orkney Farm? These and other troubling questions Miss Henslowe -- familiar to series readers from her role in fan favorite Bertram of Butter Cross -- will need to resolve if she and the others at Orkney are to thwart a looming danger from centuries past, in this new sixth installment in author Jeffrey E. Barlough's acclaimed Western Lights series of fantasy-mysteries. Also included in the new volume is Ebenezer Crackernut -- the delightful tale of a very bad squirrel, and the author's first Western Lights story for children.

About this title

About the Author

Author Barlough is a trained biologist and veterinarian with a Ph.D from Cornell, who has published some 70 research and review articles in books and scientific journals. His Western Lights series of fantasy-mysteries, begun in 2000 with Dark Sleeper, has been widely praised for its imaginative setting, eccentric characters, droll humor, and unconventional storylines.

Reviews

Barlough completes the six-book Western Lights series with this engaging tale. Ada Henslowe, last seen in 2007's Bertram of Buttercross, returns to deceptively pleasant rural Slopshire to aid her young cousin Mary Trefoil, who is in denial about her father's recent death. Mary's distracted uncle Igneus controls the family farm until she comes of age—which she may not live to do, as the shade of Tronda Quickensbog, an enchantress with a grudge against the Trefoils, has been seen by locals, and the creature that killed Mary's father is now stalking Mary. Barlough's prose is skillful and charming as he builds a winding country road of a plot. New and returning readers alike will appreciate this tale and the included children's story, "Ebenezer Cracknut." (Mar.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Gresham & Doyle
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0978763424
• ISBN 13: 9780978763428
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 365