We have a lot of eARC’s and we want to promote them a little bit more. So we decided to do some more Bookish Beginnings On Friday. Today I wanted to share the start of Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce. This book was released yesterday, so this is the perfect time to shine some light on it! Let’s take a look.
When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in an Edinburgh park, the city reels – and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with her murder.
As their trial begins and headlines scream for justice, rumours of bullying spiral into something darker: whispers of rituals, obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong.
But then the girls take the stand – revealing a chilling defence no one saw coming – and the jury must question everything: the motives, the evidence, even their own judgement.
Who’s telling the truth? Who can be trusted?
And what really happened to Christian Shaw?
Let the Witch Trial begin . . .
How to describe it, the fug of shit and blood that hit the back of his throat the moment he walked into the dark of the wooden shed, so pungent he nearly gagged. All he wanted to do was turn round and get the hell out of there. Instead, he switched on a torch, moving it slowly across the plywood floor. Feathers everywhere, that’s what he registered after the smell, blood smeared everywhere too. Not randomly, though. As he scanned the area, the light beam picking out the marks, he saw that there was a deliberate pattern to it, a five-pronged star.
A pentagram. And at its heart, a dead pigeon, headless, its breast cut open down the middle, its wings spread out wide underneath in its last bloody flight. A scene he will never forget.
I love a murder mystery with teenage girls. These books are usually brutal, as female friendships can be. This one is also all about the trial and I love seeing a case from different sides. I have read some amazing books like this and I’m always hoping to add another one to the last. Unfortunately not all of these books hit me the same way, some of them are a bit disappointing. Hopefully this is another great one! We get a cool opening and I immediately want to keep on reading. I also love that the synopsis keeps it a little bit vague, there is still enough to discover while reading the book. This makes me so excited to jump into this story!
