The Devil's Diamonds

Some call for coal. The Mountain calls for blood.

In the winter of 1923, the mining town of Pine Lick is held together by sweat, silence, and superstition. At its edge stands Meg Taylor-herbal healer, spiritual guardian, and reluctant witch of Biddle Creek-shouldering the unspoken weight of other people’s needs. When a deadly mine collapse tears through the community, Meg must confront not only the physical cost of greed, but the unraveling of her own faith in the Mountain she once trusted.

As survivors bury their dead and rumors swirl through the hollows, Meg retreats from the world, shattered by grief and exhaustion. Her closest allies-Father Thomas, Lizzie Dermott, and the people she once healed-struggle to hold the pieces together. But some burdens can’t be shared. And some disappearances echo louder than any prayer.

In a land where sacrifice is carved into the stone, how much can one woman give before the Mountain takes it all?

The Devil’s Diamonds is a powerful tale of endurance, loss, and the quiet revolutions of the soul. With haunting prose and fierce compassion, Helen Ashford delivers the most emotionally shattering entry yet in The Witch of Biddle Creek series-where the earth remembers everything, and not all spirits rest easy.