Mortal Fire

Sixteen-year-old Canny Mochries parents go away on a vacation so they send her off on a trip of her own with her stepbrother Sholto and his opinionated girlfriend Susan who are interviewing the survivors of a strange coal mine disaster and researching local folklore in 1959 Southland New Zealand. Canny is left to herself to wander in a mysterious and enchanting nearby valley occupied almost entirely by children who all have the last name Zarene and can perform a special type of magic that tells things how to be stronger and better than they already are. With the help of a seventeen-year-old boy who is held hostage in a hidden house by a spell that is now more powerful than the people who first placed it Canny figures out why she too can use this special magic that only Zarenes should know and where she really came from. Printz Honor author Elizabeth Knox has created another stunning world of intrigue in Mortal Fire.