Small Fires by Ronnie Turner will be published by Orenda Books in February 2025.

Poison runs through this land like blood…

When sisters Lily and Della Pedley are persecuted for the shocking murder of their parents, they flee from their home in Cornwall to a remote and unnamed island in Scotland – an island known for its strange happenings, but far away from the whispers and prying eyes of strangers.

Lily is terrified of what her sister will might do next, and she soon realises that they have arrived at a place where nothing is as it seems. A bitterness runs through the land like poison, and the stories told by the islanders seem to be far more than folklore.

Della settles in too easily, the island folk drawn to her strangeness, but Lily is plagued by odd and unsettling dreams, and as an annual festival draws nigh, she discovers that she has far more to fear than she could ever have imagined. Or does she…?

Chilling, atmospheric and utterly hypnotic, Small Fires is contemporary gothic novel that examines possession, female rage, and the perilous bonds of family – an unsettling reminder that the stories we tell can be deadly…

Midsommar meets Midnight Mass in a folk horror, modern gothic masterpiece.

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Here is the fantastic cover.

Extract – Old Town

They say the Devil came here. He fell to the Earth long ago and he never left.

There is a silence over this land, the stillness of a muscle before it moves. Somewhere a bird calls a warning to us in its little throat. I see its body and think I should offer a warning of my own: We have arrived. Now leave, before we break those wings.

‘This place knows we are here,’ my sister says, and I take a breath.

‘Why do you say that?’ I ask.

‘It knows,’ she says, and yes, I almost expect the mountain to take a gulp of air like the body of some great beast come to see us. Della catches my wrist with her finger. I jump, check for blood. I always check for blood when my sister touches me. She smiles, says, ‘Mind me, Lil.’

In my head I carry memories of their deaths. And if I bring my fingers to my lips, I can feel their absence there too; words I will never speak to them. A ghost living inside a ghost. I think of our old home, our names, changing on tongues as the news spread. Until all anyone could think of were their pale bodies, emptied and hanging, and ours still very much pulsing, alive.

The Witches of Old Town. We have so very many names. They called us pariahs, and we ran fast. They called down their gods, and we ran faster. They called us a ‘condemning’, like a murmuration, a moving shadow that palms the sun and takes out the light. And now we have migrated. To this island with no name.

I count the shadows but I run out of fingers to count them on. The path from the harbour twists down into a valley. There are no animals or children. The houses are empty. Where are the people? There is nothing but the mountain. It watches us, throwing down its darkness, so unyielding it makes the light feel like a captive. What things has it seen? What will it say of us to the men and women who will come to this island in the future? They will not be good stories, this I know. My sister and I do not tell good stories. Mother and father knew that.

I rub my arms to bring some heat to my skin, but I rub too hard so it only hurts. I look at my sister.

‘Does it make you feel cold – the mountain?’

Della smiles. It does. And she likes it. I wish I had not asked.

We will find our new house, Lower Tor, later; we do not mind that it will soon be night. We have always been able to find our way in the dark.

I follow Della to The Molloch Inn, and as we enter, my spine shivers, my pulse sings. We have found the people.

About the Author

Ronnie Turner grew up in Cornwall, the youngest in a large family. At an early age, she discovered a love of literature and dreamed of being a published author. Ronnie now lives in the South West with her family and three dogs. In her spare time, she reviews books on her blog and enjoys long walks on the coast. Ronnie is a Waterstones Senior Bookseller and a barista, and her youth belies her exceptional, highly unusual talent.

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.