Dark Angels/The Shadow Hunt
Wolf had heard scary tales about this hill. Stories of blue elf-fires, burning at the mouths of long-abandoned mineshafts and tunnels. Stories of bogeymen and ghosts.
Up on the very top, he had heard there was a road. A road leading nowhere, a road no one used. For if anyone was so bold as to walk along it, especially at night, he’d hear the clamour of hounds and the blowing of horns, the cracking of whips and the rumbling of a cart. And out of the dark would burst the Devil’s own dog pack, dashing beside a black wagon drawn by goats with fiery eyes, crammed full of screaming souls bound for the pits of Hell…
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In the wild border country between England and Wales, a boy is on the run. Thirteen year-old Wolf is escaping from the abbey which has been his home and prison for the last eight years. Scrambling up over the wild and haunted ridge known as ‘Devil’s Edge’, he has a strange encounter – and the creature he discovers will change his life for ever.
This book is set at the time of Richard the Lionheart, with plenty of supernatural creatures including elves, ghosts, hobgoblins, devils, angels, the Wild Host... caves, knights... I hope fans of the Troll books will enjoy it just as much. First published as ‘Dark Angels’ in the UK. Now published in the US and Canada as ‘The Shadow Hunt’.
‘The Shadow Hunt’ has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild book. JLG is a US literary review and selection service for children's and YA books, dating back to 1929. Out of over 3000 titles submitted by publishers each year, only 360 are chosen, so this is a real honor. The review will appear in the July edition.
"Langrish blends medieval Catholicism and old folk beliefs seamlessly with the supernatural. Never telling and always showing, this spooky yet utterly grounded story features pitch-perfect prose, suspense and redemption." Kirkus Reviews' starred review May 2010.
"A vividly rendered, engrossing tale. Epic themes - good and evil, faith and doubt, sin and redemption - are made personal and poignant through the losses and longings of the notably well-drawn, dimensional characters... Richly descriptive prose ...and imagined settings enhance this sometimes provocative, beautifully wrought British import." Booklist starred review.
Read a review on the Book Bag web site.
‘Langrish is a first-rate storyteller who deftly weaves into her tales vivid, well-researched domestic detail, real folklore and emotional intelligence.’ Amanda Craig, The Times 27th June 2009.