The Master House close to the Welsh border is medieval & slowly falling into ruins. Now the house & its surrounding land have been sold to the Duchy of Cornwall. But the Duchy's plans to renovate the house & its outbuildings are frustrated when the specialist builder refuses to work there. ' This is a place ' he tells the Prince's l&-steward 'that doesn't want to be restored.' Directed by the Bishop of Hereford to investigate deliverance consultant Merrily Watkins discovers ancient connections between the house & the nearby church built by the Knights Templar whose shadow still envelopes isolated Garway Hill & its scattered communities. Why did all the local inns have astrological names? What deep history lies behind the vicious feud between two local families? & what happened here to intimidate even the great Edwardian ghost-story writer M R James? When Merrily learns that she
- & even her daughter Jane
- are under surveillance by the security services she's ready to quit. But a sudden death changes everything & she returns to Garway to uncover fibres of fear & hatred stitched into history & now insidiously twisted in the corridors
- & the cloisters
- of power.