A Finnish Blood Witch. A Hmong-American boy searching for his identity. An angry farmer contributing to generations of abuse.
These three novels by Minnesotans offer a wide variety of emotions for readers. “The Reaping”: by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer, $16.99) ‘Because the veri noita was so powerful, they had to bind her hands and feet in her grave and balance a scythe over her neck so she’d be killed over again if she came back to life.
’ His voice dropped. ‘With the veri noita defeated, the disloyal villagers next turned to the original seven families, the veri noita’s truest followers.’ He began breathing heavily.
‘They murdered all their children, every last one of them, in an event that came to be known as the reaping.’ — from “The Reaping” When we interviewed Jess Lourey last fall about “The Taken Ones,” first in her series featuring Harry Steinbeck and Evangeline Reed, she teased that she would write “a creepy new villain, a Finnish Blood Witch,” in her next novel. She kept her promise.
The Witch is in “The Reaping” and she kills children, or so the kids in the Minnesota town of Alku are told by their pastor. The youngsters know that Alku is family, and you always protect family, no matter what happens. Harry Steinbeck, a forensic scientist who’s careful and methodical, and rogue Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent Evangeline Reed, messy, intuitive and willing to skirt the law to get information, are opposites in every way.
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