This is new ground for Kay as this novel is a contemporary fantasy set in and around Aix-in-Provence in France.

It’s just wonderful.

I so enjoy getting on my small soapbox and telling all you fine readers again what an intelligent, erudite, literate adult writer Kay is. No pandering to the lowest common denominator (not that there’s anything wrong with that when it’s wanted). But here you have to pay attention and you want to pay attention because what you get to savor is lyrical writing and a look at a really fine imagination at the top of its ability.

The story involves two students Ned, a Canadian, and Kate, an American, who meet up while Ned’s father, a famous photographer, is going to take photos of Saint-Sauveur Cathedral for a fancy coffee table art book.

The two explore the ancient site. First they come across a dark unfriendly stranger deep in the bowels of the church (which had been built on the site of the Roman forum) where no one should be. They then come across a compelling carving of a woman heavily eroded by time hidden in the church cloister outside identified as the “Queen of Sheba.” Whoever she really was, the two find her fascinating.

Aix-in-Provence is a site where the ancient Celt-Ligurians and the Romans clashed in a huge battle beneath Mont Saint-Victoire and both of their histories are laid thickly throughout the area.

So while Ned’s father and his team set up for photographs, the two students get pulled into an ancient struggle between two men and the “Queen of Sheba” who is named Ysabel.

There are horned gods and people who turn into wolves and owls. An ancient creepy bull-sacrifice in the ruins near Entremont—where Ned with his Gaelic background can kind of ‘slide’ between now and then seeing events happening as they did centuries ago. And take his friend Kate with him.

This a compelling look at the clash of civilizations and more importantly a very obsessive love triangle that spans centuries and the repercussions of such deep emotion on the paths of history.

The landscape of Provence is a marvelous place to set the tale. And all the characters are well-drawn.

A real pleasure. - Sue Martin