When autumn storms blast Hereford, centuries-old human bones are found among the roots of a blown down tree. At the nearby Cathedral, another storm is building around a new bishop who believes that the Church must phase out irrelevant archaic practices. Not good news for Merrily Watkins, consultant on the paranormal. Especially as she's now presented with the job at its most medieval. A rambling 12th-century house is thought to be haunted. Although its new owners don't believe in ghosts, they do believe in the need for exorcism. Merrily's discovery of the house's links with the medieval legend of a man who resisted mortality threatens to expose the hidden history of a more modern cult and its trail of insidious abuse.
