Hex: Darkland Tales

About this book

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

Hex: Darkland Tales revisits one of Scotland’s most disturbing episodes through an intimate and unsettling encounter. Part of the Darkland Tales series, which reworks history and legend for a contemporary audience, this novel centres on the final hours of Geillis Duncan, condemned during the North Berwick witch trials.

Imprisoned beneath Edinburgh High Street, Geillis awaits execution when a stranger appears in her cell. Iris claims to come from a future shaped by different laws but familiar injustices, a world where women are still punished for defiance and belief. As night wears on, Geillis recounts her arrest, torture and forced confession, piecing together how fear and power sealed her fate.

Iris listens, offering comfort and the fragile hope of escape as dawn draws closer. Hex is a restrained yet emotionally charged novel about persecution, solidarity and the persistence of violence across centuries. It asks what has changed, what has not, and whose voices history chooses to silence.