ON THE EDGE OF DARKNESS

BARBARA ERSKINE

A compelling story of a woman trapped in the wrong time, and a powerful, deadly curse that haunts three generations without mercy…

Adam Craig is fourteen when, near an isolated Celtic stone in the wild Scottish Highlands, he meets Brid, whose exotic, gypsy-like dress and strange attitudes fascinate him. They become friends and, in time, passionate lovers. She leads him, unsuspecting, into the sixth century where – training as a Druid priestess – she has mastered their ancient mysteries and powerful, dangerous magic.

In her obsession with Adam, Brid is seen as a traitor by her people, only escaping death by following Adam to Edinburgh when he leaves home to study medicine.

As the years pass, Adam makes new friends, and finds new love. But Brid, consumed by jealousy, haunts him like an evil shadow until, fifty years on, Adam’s granddaughter, Beth, helps him discover the secret that will free them from the terror of Brid’s curse.

Barbara Erskine’s books usually involve two or more present day characters being haunted or willingly or unwillingly possessed by historical figures who have found a window from the past to interact with this present day world. This novel goes one stage further where Brid, a girl in druidic
training in dark ages Celtic society is able to step into our present day to snare in love Adam, the son of a puritanical Scottish parish minister.

Adam grows up, trains in medicine, falls in love with a present day student, thus envoking the wrath of Brid, who crosses into our time and follows him to the south of England and proceeds to plot her revenge.

Without giving too much away, this novel is much more brutal than some of
Barbara Erskine’s other novels, perhaps too tragic in a way to feel fully
comfortable with the storyline. However, like all her others, there is a
well woven tale of past and present coming together with consequences in
both worlds.