In The Furies by Mark Alpert we are given the premise that witches are real. Not in the sense of old women creating
spells, gathering in covens but in the sense that there was a real set of
individuals who really were different behind all the witch hunts of the
past. In the book there is a family
with an x-linked gene that allows female carriers to live, barring accident,
essentially forever. These women, with
such long lives, develop science & steer their communities in the early
years of mankind and fall prey to hysteria about differences as time moves
on. We find them in this book
completely isolated. Living in a cave
in Michigan and interacting only rarely with the outside world. There has been a civil disruption since the
men of the family (deprived of x-linked longevity) want a serum developed to
give them what their sisters & mothers have. The book then, is essentially a story of this (very violent)
conflict through the eyes of an outsider who stumbled into the whole mess
somewhat against his will.
The book is a fairly straightforward, kind of violent,
thriller, with lots of death for the very old.
The author spoiled it for me with his endnote so I can’t give it a
hearty endorsement, however, the book is fine if you like a shoot-em-up
thriller.
