Out of the Dawn Light

Starred review from July 6, 2009
Clare’s captivating first in a new medieval series dramatizes the clash between the old pagan ways and Christianity in 11th-century England. In 1087, with the death of William the Conqueror, the common people are in a rebellious mood. Meanwhile, Lassair, a 14-year-old girl from a Fenland village with special gifts, is learning to be a healer. When two young men ask her to use her skills to locate a hidden treasure, she can’t refuse. Lassair joins the men on an arduous trek across East Anglia to the coast, where they unearth a 500-year-old solid gold relic. This relic, Lassair realizes, has the power to cause immense harm. Clare (The Joys of My Life
and 11 other Hawkenlye mysteries) brings the people of the period to vivid life with close attention to such matters as food, clothes and religious belief. Engaging characters, like Lassair’s obnoxious sister and her storytelling grandmother, enhance a well-crafted plot that builds to a chilling climax.

July 1, 2009
Historical specialist Clare (The Joys of My Life, 2009, etc.) begins her new series in 1087, when William Rufus has just assumed the throne of England and quelled a rebellion.

In a small Fenland village, Lassair, who has the uncanny ability to find lost objects and dowse for water, is thrilled to be learning healing skills from her aunt Edild, who's skilled in the ways of the old Gods. Lassair is celebrating the wedding of her sister Goda when Romain, an attractive stranger, arrives. While she is caring for Goda, Romain returns with Sibert, a friend from Lassair's village, and begs her to join them to search for a valuable object. Happy to get away from Goda, whose pregnancy seems designed specifically to make everyone around her miserable, she agrees. A three-day trip leads them to the sea and the former home of Sibert's ancestors, which the Norman overlords granted to Romain's family. There Lassair discovers a golden crown with hidden powers buried near an underwater tree trunk. Romain plans on using the crown to convince the king to return the land his family lost in the rebellion. But Lassair and Sibert take the crown and leave him behind. When he follows them and is killed, Sibert is accused of the crime, and it takes all Lassair's courage to help prove him innocent.

A treat that's full of the mysticism, period detail and mystery Clare's readers have come to expect.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2009
Readers who have enjoyed Clares popular Hawkenlye books will be delighted with her new mystery series set in medieval England. England is under strict military rule as the tale begins, but 14-year-old Lassair is only concerned with whether a boy named Sibert will dance with her at her sisters wedding. But when a handsome stranger called Romain arrives, Lassair changes course immediately. Although years older than Lassair, he deigns to dance with her and then asks her to meet him secretly. When she does, Sibert is there, too. Puzzled, Lassair soon learns that Romain needs her dowsing skills to find a mysterious object at an unidentified location. Intrigued and mystified, Lassair sets off with Sibert and Romain, only to find herself involved in a deadly missionthe search for a 500-year-old crown with magical powers. This cleverly plotted blend of historical mystery and romance provides a charged atmosphere, high-spirited adventure, and a charismatic cast of characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)