The Twelfth Enchantment

September 5, 2011
Set in 1812 Nottinghamshire, this delightfully original tale from Liss (The Devil's Company) combines the classic elements of a Regency romance with ancient magic and the machine-breaking of the Luddite rebellion. Now living with her miserly uncle, orphaned and impoverished 20-year-old Lucy Derrickâalready with one failed elopement to her nameâfeels her only escape is via marriage to the unpleasant mill-owner Mr. Olson. That is, until the day the notorious Lord Byron appears on her doorstep, apparently under a curse, and warns her to avoid the marriage and "gather the leaves." Tutored by the mysterious Mary Crawford and courted desultorily by the rakish Byron, Lucy begins to unlock her own magical talents. In the process, she discovers the secrets of her own past, as well as an ancient evil that threatens England itself. Liss neatly tweaks the conventions of the genre, effectively combining the personages and political issues of the day with alchemical science and the ghostly mysteries of the barrow-mounds for a historical adventure with appeal well beyond fans of the Regency era.

July 1, 2011

In this change of literary direction, Liss mixes his considerable knowledge of 19th-century England and its industrialization period with a touch of literal magic.

Sweet Lucy Derrick's past luck has been anything but good. Her father favored eldest daughter Emily, but when Emily died, it brought him and Lucy closer together. Then her father also passed away, leaving Lucy and Martha, the middle Derrick girl, without money or prospects. Martha selflessly married the disagreeable Mr. Buckles with the hopes that he would provide for both her and Lucy, but Buckles forced Lucy from the family home. That is how Lucy came to find herself under the roof of a dyspeptic uncle and his rotten-to-the-core retainer, Mrs. Quince. Lucy's only suitor, a mill owner named Olson, makes hosiery in a dark, dirty place where women, children and the elderly toil under untenable conditions for slender wages. Olson, who has no redeeming qualities other than being one of the few successful businessmen in town, plans to marry Lucy, even though Lucy wants no part of him, although she acknowledges her prospects are dim. A youthful indiscretion with a much older man has tainted her in the eyes of many, although the runaway lovers were intercepted before anything could happen. Alone, relatively friendless and without resources, Lucy is amazed when the beautiful and mysterious Mary Crawford befriends her, and even more astounded when she finds unsuspected talents for practicing the art of magic. Through Mary, Lucy discovers an innate ability to understand and cast spells, but at the same time, Lucy's life is caught up in other things she does not understand: the burgeoning Luddite movement, a visit from a handsome, well-known nobleman and mounting fear engendered by shadowy dark creatures that others cannot see and do not realize are there. Liss writes in the almost formal style of that period and faithfully conveys England's atmosphere during the early advent of mechanization, but the convoluted story moves at a tiresome pace.

This odd mixture of industrial history and the occult world lacks charm and coherency, but it earns points for ambition and characterization.

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May 1, 2011

Liss got his start as an author of historical thrillers with A Conspiracy of Papers, which won Barry, Macavity, and Edgar best first novel honors. In this Regency-set novel (rather cheeky, that), the well-bred Lucy Derrick is forced to live with her ungracious uncle after her father's death. She's saved from marriage to the local miller when an ethereal and clearly ill young man knocks on the door and demands that the marriage not take place. Then he collapses. Some setup; with a six-city tour.

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