Xenobe Purvis's immersive debut novel, The Hounding, is a haunting exploration of turn-of-the-18th-century England, when men held all power, women and children had no voice, and the church and alehouse were the primary gathering places.
An overriding mood of foreboding shrouds the novel, which begins with a startling prologue: "The girls, the infernal heat, a fresh-dead body." The villagers--a "vengeful mob"--advance toward the five Mansfield sisters, certain that the girls played a part in the murder. Purvis's close third-person narration then moves among several characters, the multiple perspectives contributing clues to an inexorable progression that leads to this initial scene.
With the puritanical overtones of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and its hints of superstition, The Hounding taps into universal themes of fear, violence, lust, and also empathy. Pete the ferryman starts the rumor that the five girls are transforming into dogs. More rumors spread like infection through the town and, like its citizens, readers are left to decide what is real and what is projected outward in order to avoid looking inward. --Jennifer M. Brown