Impossible by Nancy Werlin Published by Dial of Penguin Group USA is now out in paperback!
This book was impossible to put down. Everything in my life went by the wayside until I finished it. Nancy Werlin is a master at writing chilling, suspenseful stories with layers of meaning that you think about long after you close the book.
Impossible was inspired by the old folk song “Scarborough Fair”, which in turn was based on one of the Child ballads from Scotland known as “The Elfin Knight.” In it a woman has to perform three impossible tasks to prove her true love, which sounds cruel, but in another version it is a devil who requires her to perform the tasks, which makes the ballad suddenly more sinister, and gave Nancy Werlin the idea for a story.
Lucy Scarborough is seventeen when her life begins to spin out of control manipulated by a curse that ruined her mother’s life and generations of grandmothers before her. A pregnancy following a date rape gives Lucy her timeline to perform three ancient, impossible tasks in order to break the curse. Unlike her ancestors, she is not abandoned and trying to complete the tasks alone – she has family and a true love, who believe her and help her. But even with help the tasks seem impossible, and the devil, angry and concerned that she could succeed, takes human form and beguiles those closest to her, insinuating himself into her family.
I couldn’t guess the ending as possible resolutions came and went, and no tricks or betrayals are too low, when a purely evil devil is waiting for you.
What a book, Child ballads are riches in Nancy Werlin’s magical hands.
