Ten-year-old Bethan, an only child, moves with her family to a remote house at the foot of the mountains. She is soon mesmerised by a dysfunctional family farming nearby. The wild daughter, Nia, becomes her friend, unreliable though she may be. The son, Morgan, both scares and fascinates her, and as she grows up, she ends up getting dragged into his devious plots.
When circumstances conspire to means she is left alone to run her family farm, his knowledge of sheep and willingness to help her prove invaluable, but after seducing her he starts to take over her life. His spying and stalking make her a physical and emotional wreck - is there no option but to move from Cwmgwrach, her beloved farm, or is there some other way to get rid of his menace?
Industry Reviews
Artist Mary Griese is already a prize-winning short-story writer, and Where Crows Would Die, her first published novel, is an astonishingly complex and assured piece of writing. Her handling of atmosphere and detail may draw on her artistic talents, but the creation of varied and engaging characters and psychological subtlety is most impressive.
Griese, a former sheep-farmer herself, is an artist specialising in scenes and portraits of farming life and livestock, and her unsentimental clarity of description and knowledge of place are the bedrock of the book. The novel follows Bethan Pritchard's experiences from when, at ten years old in 1960, she and her parents came to The Plas in the Black Mountain region, until the 1970s when she is herself farming the neighbouring land of Cwmgwalch. At junior school she befriends Nia, the wild youngest daughter of the Williams family of Cwmgwalch, and is frightened and fascinated by Nia's older half-brother, Morgan. In a sense, the first chapter encapsulates the themes and flavour of the whole novel. It is an intriguing opening, capturing the essence of the central characters and the way the tone shifts between humour and menace, from the very physical details of farming life to the occasional shiver of the supernatural.
Despite the doom-laden title, this is not a gloomy novel, although its dark psychological elements justify the 'Welsh noir' label. Bethan's parents are delightful portraits - warm, humorous and eccentric. Nia develops into the best friend Bethan could have, and Nia's mentor, Mr Gentleman, is another charming creation. The dark heart of the book is Morgan - a mass of contradictions, damaged by his birth, his sadistic stepmother and possibly by an inherited mental instability. His evident abilities are misused to stalk and control the women he is involved with, but he is never simply a villain. Sometimes generous, often misread, longing to be part of a 'normal' family, he loves and respects Bethan's parents, who give him an affection and respect he has from no one else. Indeed, he may suffer from their loss even more than she does, because of his isolation. His appearance at an Art Gallery party has a flavour of sexy Seth Starkadder at the Hunt Ball, but he is increasingly closer to Heathcliff in both his cruelty and his pain. In his relationships with Veronica and Elin, the manipulation is mutual, but his obsession with Bethan grows more dangerous, especially after her father's death. The final suggestion of the supernatural in the chapel scene might not be necessary, but it is plausibly an expression of Bethan's haunted state of mind.
The threading of themes and echoes through the book is masterly. Morgan's surprising fastidiousness seems a quirk but becomes an important driver of his moods and reactions. The idea of the power of an illusionist runs through the book - so harmless and sweet in Mr Gentleman, so dangerous in Morgan.
It is to be hoped that this enthralling debut will be followed by other stories to chill and delight. -- Caroline Clark @ www.gwales.com
