Linda Holeman's characters are instantly familiar. Or are they? In the nine stories which comprise "Devil's Darning Needle," we meet people -- seemingly ordinary -- struggling to go forward. The reader is taken from early memories of sex and death through the rise and fall of hope and despair, betrayal and redemption. Meet Willow, who holds a mysterious and suffocating spell over a woman who innocently befriends her; the powerful Birdie, who, despite her lowly position, becomes a saviour; Seamus, carrying all his anguish and faith in a simple cookie tin. These are but a few of Holeman's memorable characters, all guarding the secrets of their hearts. With their finely tuned moments of memory and truth, their pivotal flashes of clarity, these characters will continue to haunt the reader long after the book has been set down.