Debut novel:
The Birds of the Air
On a spring day in 1933, a strange man with a not-quite-friendly smile appeared in Libby Barnett’s backyard. Like a figure from a dark fairy tale, he worked a staggering transformation on Libby’s younger sister, and the little girl was lost.
Blaming herself, longing to win her mother’s forgiveness and love, 13-year-old Libby becomes unshakable in her determination to find her sister. When a young drifter offers help, she gambles on his trustworthiness and sets out with him into the dangerous vagrant underground of the Great Depression.
She soon finds she has entered an underworld even more secretive and terrifying. In this hidden reality, practitioners of a barbaric, costly magic use stolen children as tools to harness power.
It is from the most lethal of these men that Libby must recover her sister. She is willing to give everything, but it won’t be enough.
In a gripping blend of matter-of-fact realism and supernatural horror, The Birds of the Air tells the story of a young girl who must summon a kind of courage different from the swaggering audacity that often claims the name.
Some might scorn this courage as weakness.
They will learn.
Available on Amazon
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Audiobook also available from these retailers:
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About L. H. Arthur
Grew up in New Mexico. Graduated with an English degree from U.C. Berkeley, then wisely joined a rock band. Toured the US and Canada until it gave me a headache, then settled down in Oakland, CA to play music with my husband in sketchy local venues, raise our fantastic son, and write fiction.