Review: An excellent prequel short story.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 19, 2012
White Witch is the prequel to Lyn Horner's Darlin' Druid; it sets the background and introduces the characters of Jessie and Tye, children of Irish immigrants to the USA in 1871. A short story that is extremely well written, the historically accurate events of the Chicago Fire of October that year. What Lyn has done is placed her characters, the father and adult children and brought to life, realistically and empathetically, through story, the reenactment of witnessing and fleeing an immense fire that destroyed the then City of Chicago. The perfect combination of fuel...the tinder dry wood, oxygen and heat from that hot August wind, that in turn fanned and spread this devastating fire and it's aftermath are all here from the grabbing of their few belongings to fear of their horse as they try to get to safety. I had wondered when I saw the title White Witch what the paranormal content might be, but in this it refers to uncannily accurate realistic premonitions. It is all reasonably plausible. It even considers the symptoms and effects of the then unknown Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, that people would have had no choice but to cope with in those days. Standard of English is generally very good...my most constructively critical comment would be slight overuse of And/But conjunctions some of which could be avoided. That said it's a very good prequel and just hits the 5 stars in my opinion. I look forward to reading more of Lyn Horner's Druid series.