A.S. Maslow’s A Valley of Echoes is an intriguing historical novel that weaves Celtic lore into an imaginative look at the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, community prior to the catastrophic 1889 flood.

In 1888, a young woman with a secretive past moves to Johnstown. Rosemarie Donohue plans to open a sophisticated women’s clothing store there after leaving New York City under unknown circumstances. Despite residents initially greeting her with hostility, she begins to make friends and opens her emporium. When she meets Michael, a master carpenter, a romance develops as well as a connection with his mother, Moran, a woman with her own secrets.

When Moran introduces her to Brigid, a Celtic goddess, Rosemarie must choose whether to accept Brigid’s offer to bestow on her powers that could be used to help or destroy others. Brigid cautions her that every action taken “is like tossing a pebble into a pond” and bears unforeseen outcomes.

Meanwhile, as Rosemarie’s business thrives, the city is at risk to both rising racial tension and potential weaknesses in the upstream dam.

Maslow bookends the narrative with scenes set in 1989, a decision that makes sense as the plot unfolds. She relates the real-life history of the Johnstown flood—which killed more than 2,000 people—through an array of characters whose lives portray the region’s socio-economic dynamics and raise themes of prejudice and female empowerment. In describing the finer points animating her characters, such as a society matron who deliberately sticks her finger into chocolates in search of buttercreams, she renders them lifelike.

However, the ease with which Rosemarie, a levelheaded woman, accepts the sudden appearance of a Celtic goddess is hard to accept.

In spite of this, Maslow succeeds in crafting a briskly paced story that combines elements of romance, fantasy, and mystery into a tale that puts a human face on the catastrophic tragedy.