Harm None - Paperback

by Gay Lynch (Author)

As winter deepened, lines of thought snarled, untangled, snarled. It became impossible to grasp where harm fell and who caused it...

Garnet Southwood lives by the river with her mercurial mother Raven and Wiccan grandmother Ebba in a cottage overgrown with ancient herbs and trees.

Threefold events disturb their peaceful solitude. A new neighbour rents the cottage next door and confronts their love of nature with his intrusive photography, strange captivity of animals and birds, and dark trade.

Visions of a boy appear on Raven's computer screen. Even more unsettling, someone hacks in from a Scottish server, perhaps her ancestors, sending inexplicably violent film-clips that vanish without trace.

Garnet reads about witchcraft for her school essay on The Crucible and road-runs to save her sanity. Before long she's pulled into a mysterious web that connects her to the dark history of 16th-century witch hunts.

After dark, friends Cody, Zane, Lyndon, Daisy and Kendra live online and message each other. At school they keep to themselves, drawing on black humour to deal with students and teachers who wield power. When they show an unnatural interest in poisonous plants in her garden, Garnet sees connections with Miller's play.

Against the backdrop of this country town, where life is hard for teenagers who are seriously nocturnal, ride in cars and attend friends' funerals, how far will Garnet have to run to save her sanity?

With a unique voice that blends lyrical prose with sharp insight and a light humour, Harm None captures the nuances of adolescence and the complicated quest for identity in an unconventional family.