Eleven-year-old Dina has just discovered she has inherited her mother's gift - when people look into her eyes, they are forced to acknowledge all their weaknesses and guilt. It is an unhappy gift, though; people shy away from contact with Dina, and believe her mother is a witch. Dina's mother has just begun to teach her how to use her power wisely when she is called away by the Lawgiver of the Court of the Ravens, to aid in the detection of the murderer of four members of the royal family. Dina's mother does not return the next day. Instead, Dina is fetched by a stranger, Drakan; finding him able to look into her eyes calmly and innocently, she goes with him. But, arriving at the House of the Ravens, she finds her mother captive, and she herself no more than a pawn in a terrifying game of blackmail. Terrified, Dina escapes. But she is pitted against an implacable enemy: Drakan and his army of dragons...
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Lene Kaaberbøl was born in Copenhagen in 1960, with suitable drama: the obstetrician had to rush from banquet and was still wearing his white tie and tails. She was 15 when her first two books were published, and since then she has written more than thirty novels and children's books. She has won several national and international awards for her fiction, and her work has been translated into more than 30 languages. At her recent nomination for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the IBBY Committee wrote: "She is incredibly skilled at constructing universes and shows remarkable loyalty to her stories and her characters. Lene Kaaberbøl's writing captivates the reader; her worlds draw you in, move you, make you laugh and cry and give you ample food for thought. And it is our assessment that her works have not just national and international potential, but the potential to become classics."
While fantasy is her preferred genre when writing for children and YA, there is nothing remotely fairytale-like about her crime novels for adults. The Boy in the Suitcase, written in collaboration with Agnete Friis, was called a "first rate thriller" by Michelle Wiener of Associated Press: "Written in that sparse, uniquely Scandinavian style sure to draw comparisons with a certain blockbuster trilogy (this is better), this story packs plenty of emotional suspense and interpersonal friction without veering into melodrama."
"I really enjoy writing in many different worlds - including our own - and for many different audiences. I sometimes feel it's the literary version of living in an auto camper: you can always change the view, and you're constantly meeting new people," says Kaaberbøl, who in real life lives in an old water mill in the countryside near Aarhus, Denmark, with her four dogs.
