It should be straightforward enough. Someone is needed to interview two spinster sisters in their nineties for a research project in Social History and Folklore. The best woman for the job is Dr Rhianna ‘Anna’ Summers but she is currently dealing with memories of her own after resigning her post, and takes some persuading to go back to research work. The prospect of handing over the Webb sisters to an unscrupulous academic rival, however, proves to be the spur that Anna needs. The Swiffords - a group of four related villages - are set in an isolated peninsula barely touched by tourism, where the only crime in recent years has been minor vandalism and burglary. Yet the very day Anna arrives, a spate of brutal - and seemingly random - murders starts to unfold, striking at the heart of village life and casting suspicion on incomer and local alike. As neighbour turns against neighbour, tension builds to breaking point. Working with the Misses Webb, Anna finds herself uncovering some carefully guarded and dangerous secrets.

For in this quiet English backwater, evil lurks.