Liverpool is in the grip of an intense heatwave, and strange things are happening. A woman dies in an apparent case of Spontaneous Human Combustion; a truck explodes on the dock road; the charred corpses of pets litter the city; forest fires ravage the pinewoods.and there are birds everywhere, silent flocks drawing in ominously. Detective Inspector Darren Swift thinks there are connections, and his investigation delves into the worlds of football, nightclubs and organised crime. But is he imagining things? Dr. Helen Hope doesn't think so. And she believes the key lies in a mysterious seventeenth-century occult book which has gone missing from Liverpool Library. In the blistering sequel to Reprobation, DI Swift is forced to confront some inconvenient ghosts from his past, as a terrifying shadow lies over his city's future.