The Wild Hunt

Seckel’s haunting debut describes life on an isolated Scottish island just after World War II. Leigh Welles left the island for the mainland, but now receives the news that her father has fallen from a cliff and died. Leigh returns home and finds the island folk in a state of unease. The war was hard on them, and now it’s October and the sluagh—crowlike creatures believed to “carry the dead’s souls”—have come back and are attacking them out in the open. After islander Hugo McClare kills one, he disappears. The island folk look for him, but somehow, they aren’t surprised when they don’t find him. As Leigh and Iain MacTavish, a possible love interest, join in the search, they learn that the island is stranger and more dangerous than they ever suspected. Narrator Ruth Urquhart’s wonderful Scottish accent perfectly complements the book. Her understated narrative style heightens the horror of the sluagh. She immerses listeners into the insular, superstitious, and failing island with its many secrets and air of danger. Urquhart’s narration deftly alternates between intense and despairing.