Dragon's Eye

I enjoyed this book about three families -- two with centuries-old criminal backgrounds, two with magical backgrounds -- in a small town in Maine. When a South American sorcerer in the drug trade takes up with one of the families, the other two come together despite mutual distrust to guard the community.

In some ways it reminded me of a Charles DeLint story, with old magic -- both indigenous American and Old Country -- surviving into and quietly shaping lives in the modern world.

I'm definitely going to read the next book in the series.

Fun. I think this is the first published novel by Hetley, but it doesn't show it, although at just a couple of places the pacing/dialogue breaks down a bit and could be improved. Having greatly enjoyed one of his other books I was keen to find out if his other writing reaches the same standard - it does!

This is urban fantasy from before the genre was invented. It's focused on one of two families living in an isolated community on the coast of Maine. Both are heavily patriarchal as the oldest son discovers when, upon the death of his father, he's invited to share the family secret by someone who it turns out is his Uncle, a man thought dead for many years. This leads him to hope that his father may too be alive. The secret involves show more diving into their flooded cellar to visit the Dragon's Eye kept beneath the waves.

Also within he community is the matriarchal witches' Family, a house that's been there for hundreds of years before even the first white settlers moved in. They've never really sided with one family or the other, content to guard their own secrets and power, looking after women and their tribal ancestors. However when one of the families starts involving foreign magicians they take sides to preserve the status quo.

Character driven it's just really nicely done. A good consideration of how different people are similar but not the same. Some nicely balanced magic, and thoroughly thought through world. We do switch between characters a bit and this gets a little clunky sometimes in the middle, however there is no cutting away to the bad guy revealing all his plots, which instead we get to experience through the characters' discoveries of them - the correct way to write it, and huge bonus marks to Hetley for achieving this. Other authors take note! Slightly disconcertingly though we also skip forward in short periods of time, which means that some actions only become apparent retrospectively. It takes a while to get used to this.

Generally great, I'm certainly going to read the sequel and investigate what other works he's written.
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After re-read there's nothing more to add. I prefer single POV but this does just about work with the multiple characters. show less

The cover to this book does it little justice. A better cover would include a dragon's tear, Celtic knots, a Selkie and the wild coast of Maine and maybe a lobster boat or two.

The main character is not the guy in the water (on the cover), but the House and Aunt Alice, the Haskell witch who helps to protect Stonefort, a small coastal town in Maine. She's part of a long line of Haskell women who not only guard the springs under the house, but who've intermingled and tangled with the almost equally long line of Morgans who carry a special gift of their own - the ability to turn into a Selkie (a seal-like creature of Celtic/Welsh lore). The Morgans also have an agreement with an otherworldly being known only as "The Dragon" who loans her show more powers to those she accepts into her perception of strength.

The two families unite when there's a threat to themselves and their town. When a big threat, in the form of a Peruvian brujo seeking to steal the Dragon's power for himself shows up, it's going take every weapon their collective arsenal to put him down.

The story is fast paced and good, the language straight forward. The author doesn't try to do anything fancy which would make the story clunky. His description of the Haskell House is interesting - one can 'travel' through the centuries from the fairly modern to several centuries back, down in the cellar where the ancient springs is protected from the eyes of men. It is a house only women live in and it is a living entity in its own right.

All in all, a surprisingly interesting and enjoyable story. I think I might track down more of Mr. Hetley's books. show less

Found this in a used bookstore and thought the cover was gay--but the cover hero is NOT gay and the books' witch heroine, who is not the love-interest of the hero at all, is a lesbian. That sorted out pretty quickly, thank goodness.

The writing is good, the main characters (let's see, all 6 of them, plus assorted animal sidekicks) are interesting and likable, the villain has his own code of honor, but is still eeevil, and the setting is a very small coastal town in Maine. With pink granite. This book is set in modern America, but every one of the many main characters has magic. Whether they admit it or not. The author's use of history, putting the connection between the Welsh Morgan family, and the Haskell Woman (the heroine who is a show more witch as well as a Naskeag American Indian and an EMT) before Columbus, was fun. Enough, but not too much, time is given for everybody's emotional growth, too.

Still I/P so we'll see how it ends.

It ends well! Except for the villain. I would like to see the sequel. Hope it won't be too hard to find... show less

Weird. Good writing, good characterization, interesting universe, but somehow it just doesn't catch me. None of the characters really interest me; the story is fine, but I was more interested in getting to the end than in seeing what happened. I don't know what it is, but it just doesn't work for me. I'll read the next, though.

Took me a while to get into the book. The beginning's a little slow, but once into the story it moves well and sparks your interest. A mixture of Welsh and American Indian folklore blends well. The author allows the characters to blend the mystic magic of both cultures and have the magic become a very useful tool in the modern times. The villain of the book uses a blend of ancient South American Incas and older magic. The main source of magic for the Morgan's is the Dragon's Eye. An orb that is not of earthly origin but has made a pact with the Morgan's to help them thru the centuries. The women characters seem more fleshed out than that of the men.

I adore this book (ignore the cover on the paper edition) - as of now there's an ebook edition and at the moment it's 99 cents. I'm rereading and still loving it.