Urchin of the Riding Stars (The Mistmantle Chronicles, Book 1) by M.I. McAllister.

The Goodreads blurb on this this book calls it “an epic, Shakespearian story of murder, treachery and revenge,” and I can see that. The themes and plot of Macbeth in particular are obviously present. However, I think my expectations were a little too high from all of the many recommendation I’ve seen for this series. It was decent fantasy fiction, similar to the Redwall book or S.D. Smith’s Green Ember series, but the writing and the plot development were not as good as I expected them to be. It’s not described in detail, but there is murder (of animal characters) and what I would call demon possession, although those words aren’t used in the book, and “culling” (killing) of inferior or weak newborn animals, so beware of giving this book to sensitive readers.

Urchin is a squirrel born on the Night of the Riding Stars. I’m not sure what “riding stars” are but maybe some kind of meteor shower? At any rate, the Night of the Riding Stars always portends some major event on the island of Mistmantle where squirrels, otters, moles, and hedgehogs live in harmony under the beneficent rule of their king, a hedgehog. When Urchin grows up and comes to serve in the castle, things start to go south. His mentor and master, Crispin the squirrel, takes the fall for the murder of the child prince, and when Crispin is exiled, Urchin and his new masters the otter Padra, must find out who the real murderer is and save the kingdom from an evil plot to overthrow the king. The villain of the piece is truly evil, and the good guys muddle about rather dimly trying to stop him.

I am hoping that the series improves with the second book, Urchin and the Heartstone. There are five books in this series, and I have the first three in my library. I am told that books four and five are not only out of print, but also very difficult to find as affordable, used books. The entire series is available for Kindle, however.