“The storm was more than a weather pattern. It was alive. Outside the wind got its hands around everything and dug its nails in.”

So begins Weathered Bones, a novel of supernatural storms, restless ghosts and family secrets. This darkly atmospheric first novel from New Zealand writer Michele Powles begins with a powerful tempest that will pick you up by the scruff of your neck and take you on a whirlwind journey through New Zealand history.

Weathered Bones tells the stories of three unique women – grandmother Antoinette who is struggling with the grief and loneliness of widowhood; young wife Grace, trapped in a failing marriage and spiralling into a suicidal state; and Eliza, a 19th Century lighthouse keeper with a message for Antoinette and Grace from beyond the grave. (Eliza is, in fact, based upon the fascinating Mary Jane Bennett, New Zealand’s first female lighthouse keeper.)

In intriguing style, Michele weaves together the lives of these three women who are separated by age, experience and time but are ultimately united by the powerful bonds of female relationships and the different types of pain they each endure. Although this novel could be classified as a ghost story, it’s also very contemporary and deals with issues surrounding mental illness and the pain of love.

Michele herself is a woman of some accomplishment – she comes from a dance background and has completed her first novel only after a long and successful career (still ongoing) as a dancer and choreographer. These days she runs New Zealand Book Month, the annual celebration of Kiwi writing, and as a result of the critical success of Weathered Bones, has been awarded the prestigious Robert Burns Fellowship for 2010.

An exciting new literary talent, Michele is one to watch out for and, trust me, you’ll be able to feel the chill of the storm that brews throughout this gripping novel deep within your own bones.