Sing Witch, Sing Death [Import] [Paperback]

Roberta Gellis (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Books (1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552687197
• ISBN-13: 978-0552687195
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,437,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roberta Gellis has a varied educational background--a master's degree in biochemistry and another in medieval literature--and working history--10 years as a research chemist, many years as a free-lance editor of scientific manuscripts, and more than 40 years as a writer. She is married--to the same man for over 60 years (no mean feat in these days) and lives in Lafayette, Indiana, with her husband Charles and a lively Scottish terrier called Zoe. She has one child, Mark, who teaches Rhetoric (a fancy name for expository writing) at Kettering University in Michigan. Mark is married to Sandra and they have a lovely daughter, Elizabeth.

Gellis has been a successful writer of historical fiction, publishing over 25 meticulously researched historical novels since 1964. The best known of these are The Roselynde Chronicles (ROSELYNDE, ALINOR, JOANNA, GILLIANE, RHIANNON, and SYBELLE). The series has been reprinted many times since its first appearance in 1979, most recently in 2006. Gellis has also been the recipient of many awards, including the Silver and Gold Medal Porgy for historical novels from West Coast Review of Books, the Golden Certificate and Golden Pen from Affaire de Coeur, The Romantic Times Award for Best Novel in the Medieval Period (more than once) and Lifetime Achievement Award for Historical Fantasy, as well as Romance Writers of America's Lifetime Acheivement Award.

More recently Gellis has ventured into other genres, starting with mythological fantasy (DAZZLING BRIGHTNESS, SHIMMERING SPLENDOR, ENCHANTED FIRE, BULL GOD, and THRICE BOUND). Most recently she has written historical fantasy, with a series of book coauthored by Mercedes Lackey set in Elizabethan times (THIS SCEPTER'D ISLE, ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, BY SLANDEROUS TONGUES, and AND LESS THAN KIND). Before that she was writing historical mysteries, a four-book series set in London and Oxford in 1139 (A MORTAL BANE, A PERSONAL DEVIL, BONE OF CONTENTION and CHAINS OF FOLLY) and one set in the Italian Renaissance in Ferrara (LUCREZIA BORGIA and the MOTHER OF POISONS).

Since Gellis is one of the early addicts to electronic readers---she purchased a RocketeBook way back in 1999---it is no surprise that she was eager to get her own out of print historical romances into electronic format. Cerridwen Press (http://www.cerridwenpress.com) has published the Heiress Series (THE ENGLISH HEIRESS, THE CORNISH HEIRESS, THE KENT HEIRESS, FORTUNE'S BRIDE, and A WOMAN'S ESTATE) as well as the Royal Dynasty Series (don't ask me about that, there isn't a royal or a dynasty in any of the four books---it was a notion of a long-ago agent) SIREN SONG, WINTER SONG, FIRE SONG, and A SILVER MIRROR. Cerridwen offers a variety of formats, one of which can be read by the Kindle and for those too firmly addicted to paper, the books are also available in a very nice Trade edition (but those are rather expensive).

I'm sorry I don't have any amusing anecdotes to relate, as recommended by the Profile, but a writer's life is really very quiet. Sometimes my neighbors ask my husband what has happened to me because they haven't seen me in such a long time. Depending on his humor of the moment, sometimes Charles tells them that I can't come outside because he keeps me chained to my computer---but that isn't true. He lets me get up once in a while.

Roberta Gellis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Little Bit Regency, A Little Bit Gothic & A Whole Lot Fun, June 14, 2002

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sing Witch, Sing Death (Paperback)

In 1816 Lord St. Just is returning to his boyhood home, Tremaire. He is accompanied by his wife, a wealthy heiress from the West Indies and her companion, an impoverished gentlewoman, Pamela Hervey, who has been hired to teach Lady St Just how to get along in society.

Hetty, Lady St. Just is a bad traveler and the trip had been punctuated by her hysterics, as she resisted being removed from the anticipated pleasures of London. Dainty and delicate, she was the spoiled daughter of a wealthy planter, married to St. Just for his title and background. This had not been a happy marriage of convenience though, and when his father and two older brothers died in a sailing accident he had inherited the title and returned to claim the estate.

Pamela Hervey is Lady St. Just's opposite. She has a generous, passionate nature and a clear sense of wrong and right.

Waiting at Tremaire is St. Just's cousin and heir, George, an impecunious London dandy; Sarah, more than a servent but devoted to St. Just; and a coven or two of witches, who are looked to by the country people to aid in a good harvest and safety for their men at sea.

The party from London arrives at a time when there is a power struggle going on in the local coven. There are mysterious accidents, evil potents and strange rituals.

Those who like a good gothic novel should really latch on to this one. It also should not disappoint Regency fans. And those who simply enjoy Roberta Gellis' books are in for a real treat.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (3.5) Not your usual Gellis story...., January 4, 2009

By 

Misfit (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sing Witch, Sing Death (Paperback)

..and not your usual Gellis cover either - for once I wasn't embarrassed to be reading it :D

The story is set in 1816 as Earl St. Just, lord of Tremaine returns to his family manor in Cornwall, with his pampered wife Hetty and her hired companion Lady Pamela in tow. The St. Just marriage, an arranged affair, is an unhappy one and St. Just finds himself falling in love with the dark and beautiful lady Pamela as they become wrapped up in unraveling the secrets of the local witch covens -- are these women truly harmless, or is there a more sinister plot involved?

All in all an entertaining albeit very short read - I honestly would have liked to see the whole thing fleshed out more than what I got in 200 pages. Lots of things that go bump in the night, wicked storms along the Cornwall coast stirred up by the witch's coven along with a few red herrings misleading the reader to who the real baddies are makes up for a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon -- although I would have loved to have seen what Du Maurier could have done with this one. 3.5/5 stars rounded up to four.