Phil Rickman

During a summer of oppressive heat in Herefordshire's hop-growing country, a converted kiln is the scene of a savage murder. When the local vicar refuses to deal with its aftermath, diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins is sent out to a village with a past as twisted as the hop-bines which once enclosed it. She is soon drawn into a deadly tangle of deceit, corruption and sexual menace.

Reverend Merrily Watkins and her daughter move to the haunted, rambling rectory in Ledwardine. The village is a mass of cobbled streets and timbered buildings, but it is also a village with an age-old tradition for horrific murders!