Never blackmail a sorcerer! Sorcery pays no bills. Fair-weather friends dropped Marta after her divorce-a major no-no in 1950s small town Ohio-some even forbade their children to play with hers. Her ex-husband regularly forgets to pay support. Only her job as a nurse keeps her family clothed and fed-barely. Until the night Bettina, an influential former friend, appears at Marta's kitchen door. Bettina's daughter's shoes mysteriously end up covered in mud time after time despite the daughter being locked in her room overnight. Bettina demands Marta find the answer-or lose her job. But the more Marta investigates the shoes and the spell behind them, the more the sorcerous power seduces her with dreams of peace, joy, . . . and retribution. Engaging and powerful, How Full of Briars offers intricately plotted, page-turning pleasure.