Troll Mill
by Katherine Langrish
Published on September 21st
The second book of the Trolls trilogy sees Peer, the hero of Troll Fell, several years older and clearly sweet on Hilde, in whose home he is now living, with Gudrun and Ralf. But Hilde is still romantically preoccupied with Arne, who is far away.
Peer has more on his mind than love-sickness: the book opens with Bjorn's wife, Kersten, hurling herself into the sea and leaving Peer holding the baby, literally. Village opinion is that Kersten is a Selkie, a seal-woman, who has retrieved her skin and re-joined her people. What to do with the baby while Bjorn haunts the shore? Peer takes her to Gudrun for nursing but that causes havoc within the family, not least with the resident Nis.
Meanwhile, Peer decides to re-open the mill where his horrible uncles lived. He cleans it up, including dislodging the Lubbers from the outside privy. But the mill has already been worked by someone else and it's not long before Peer discovers who. The Trolls are back and with them baby thefts, the predatory Granny Greenteeth, a ghost ship and the Troll princess.
I felt it was a mistake to bring back the uncles who had been turned into trolls, but apart from that, found it another rivetting adventure in Katherine Langrish's distinctively imagined world.
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