I found this slightly-battered hardcover in this Little Free Library in Bedford NH while dropping off some books of my own. It's a somewhat convoluted tale of a remote Vermont community where, in 1924, a woman was hanged as a witch by the townsfolk who blamed her for the deaths of three of their children.

In 2015, a couple, Helen and Nate, move to the same town hoping to build their own home and change their lifestyles from a two-job couple in Connecticut to self-reliant homesteaders in Vermont. (They did do a lot of research about this beforehand, but even so I admit to rolling my eyes a bit; so many people think it'd be lovely to go "back to the land" without thinking about the risks and the sheer physical toil. But I digress.)

They buy (surprise!) the land formerly owned by the murdered woman, and start in on their new house while camping out in a battered old trailer. Things are going moderately well for them, but they find that they aren't welcome by all of the townsfolk. And then strange things begin to happen - small disappearances, scrawled messages...

Meanwhile, we meet Olive, a 14-year-old who lives with her father on a neighboring plot of land, across the bog from Helen and Nate's place. She's very upset to see the new people moving in - because their presence interrupts her in her search for the lost treasure of Hattie, the murdered woman and presumed witch... It seems that before Olive's mother disappeared, she would regale Olive with stories about Hattie and her ghost and her powers - and her treasure, the family wealth that was never found and that she was said to have hidden somewhere in the bog. But Olive's mother did disappear, supposedly having run off with another man, leaving Olive's father bereft and Olive herself at a loss.

As the story progresses, Helen learns more about the history of her land and of Hattie - and then she starts seeing things. Is Hattie's ghost actually trying to tell her something?

Lots of interesting touches here, including the way in which Helen's yearning for authentic historical items to add to her house leads her to artifacts from Harriet and her descendants (her young daughter hid from the mob and was never heard from in town again). While I admit that adding a lovely piece of old timber to a house might sound appealing, if I knew it was cut from the tree on which a woman was lynched I might back slowly away...

The story took directions I didn't quite expect, and featured personal family lore, genealogical researches, and a line of family tragedies that sound pretty ominous. Helen seems to believe that she can bring the troubled spirits together by installing the associated artifacts in her home, but isn't ready to explain all this to her husband - who's having his own obsessions with a pure-white doe that he keeps following into the bog.

Once the pattern of events in Harriet's line became apparent, I did guess some of the ending, though not the full details - and the way in which the story wrapped up did surprise me. I admit I was disappointed in one key element: [spoiler: the treasure actually existed and was eventually found, but I didn't think a monetary treasure made sense in the context of the rest of the story. I'd hoped the "treasure" would turn out to be Harriet's youngest surviving descendant!]

Despite my quibbles, I did enjoy the story.

Since the book is set in Vermont I thought a Vermont Street release might serve {grin}. I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

Released for:

** 2024 The The challenge **