Hand of Fate: An Anna Loveridge Novella

By Hafferby

Wattpad's Open Novella Contest certainly continues to produce some exciting and varied novellas, year after year. Hand of Fate: An Anna Loveridge Novella is one of the more striking entries from 2019.

"The lightning strikes. The tree starts to bleed. A huge weeping wound opens, a fissure the length of the trunk, dripping red.

Inside I see the bleached white bones of a skeleton. The skeleton of the woman I used to love."

That was enough to hook me at the start.

Shortlisted for the ONC 2019, Hand of Fate, makes effective use of the popular prompt, Winter Sun - "The Winter Sun is shining low and bright. The tree in the middle of the field seems bent under the weight of something, forming a dark silhouette against snow laden on its branches. A closer look reveals drops of splattered blood on the fresh snow..."

Set in the late 1960s, the story is narrated by Anna Loveridge, international agent and psychic gun-for-hire. Aged 46, (though she looks 15 years younger), Anna has had a wild and frequently violent past, working for the Americans, or the British, or the Russians, and sometimes all three at once. She also happens to a witch.

In this story, she is hired by the CIA to investigate a new cult, the Hand of Fate, with headquarters in the English Lake District near Coniston. Jack, her new handler, doesn't seem to know much about the group other than that they are "a Marxist political sect with religious overtones..." and need to be stamped out.

Anna arrives in Coniston and quickly discovers that the cult is attracting young people (and their money) through a mixture of free love, pagan rituals, animal sacrifice and possibly LSD. Maybe this mission will be more interesting than she thought.

Even more interesting is Kim Harvington, the man in charge. Just reading his dossier, Anna suspects him of being a rogue CIA agent (which explains their interest) but that's only the beginning. Just what is going on in this remote part of the English countryside?

Anna likes to think of herself as The Last Witch in England, but... is she?

Featuring a strong female protagonist, and enlivened by acerbic dialogue and iconic moments from the sixties, Hand of Fate: An Anna Loveridge Novella is a psychic thriller for adults. Strongly recommended.

For those interested in learning more, you can read my interview with the author here.

Review by elveloy

(Editor's Note: Unfortunately, since this was written, Hafferby has left Wattpad)