The Witch Haven

Frances Hallowell is seventeen and works as a seamstress in New York City in 1911. Months after her brother's mysterious death, she is attacked, and her attacker ends up dead at her feet with her scissors in his neck. How the blades got there is a question she cannot answer.

Before a court can brand her a murderess, two nurses in capes arrive and tell her she is gravely ill and must report to Haxahaven Sanitarium. The place turns out to be a school for witches. Frances finds the sisterhood she has wanted, but the headmistress warns her that magic is dangerous.

The school teaches only small, safe magic, and Frances wants more. Finn, a boy with magic of his own, appears in her dreams and offers to teach her. His lessons might bring her closer to the truth about her brother's death. Her growing power also draws the notice of the leader of an ancient order, a man who wants magical control of Manhattan and wants Frances beside him.

This is historical fantasy, set in a conflict between witches and wizards. Frances has to weigh justice for her murdered brother and her feelings for Finn against the safety of her city and the other witches. The book opens with a murder and a mystery, and it moves toward the suspicion that the truth about her brother may be worse than she imagines.