The Witches’ Kitchen (the Life and Times of Corban Loosestrife)

Years after rescuing Mav and taking revenge on Eric Bloodaxe, Corban has carried his household across the Atlantic to Vinland. The settlement offers distance from Jórvík’s feuds but not safety: conflict with neighbouring peoples and tension within the family make the new home fragile. A ship from Europe brings a summons connected with Gunnhild and the struggle over the Viking throne, forcing Corban to choose between the refuge he has built and obligations he believed were finished.

Corban returns east with his son Conn and Mav’s son Raef, two young men eager to prove themselves and vulnerable to the ambitions of older rulers. In Denmark and Jórvík they enter a contest of succession shaped by sorcery, hostage-taking, personal loyalty and calculated violence. The novel expands the family saga across generations, contrasting Corban’s hard-earned caution with the appetite for battle of the boys who have grown up inside the legends of his earlier life.