When lightning strikes an ancient crypt, it exposes a devastating wartime secret in this compelling psychological thriller. 1967. In a quiet village in the wild lands of the Scottish borders, disgraced academic Cordelia Hemlock is trying to put her life back together. Grieving the loss of her son, she seeks out the company of the dead, taking comfort amid the ancient headstones and crypts of the local churchyard. When lightning strikes a tumbledown tomb, she glimpses a corpse that doesn’t belong among the crumbling bones. But when the storm passes and the body vanishes, the authorities refuse to believe the claims of a hysterical ‘outsider’. Teaming up with a reluctant witness, local woman Felicity Goose, Cordelia’s enquiries all lead back to a former POW camp that was set up in the village during the Second World War. But not all Gilsland’s residents welcome the two young women’s interference. There are those who believe the village’s secrets should remain buried ... whatever the cost.

Brian Genderson is a famous horror novelist known throughout most of the English-speaking world. Having run out of ideas for his next novel, he returns to his hometown of Welmington, Nevada, in hopes of remembering the horrors of his childhood, which should give him a goldmine of book plots. Before even entering the town city limits, Brian begins remembering his past. The night he arrives, he dreams of a little girl he saw once when he was seven. The following day, Brian meets an old friend and classmate, Tiffany, and discovers she has a six-year-old daughter named Annie, who the previous day also saw the same little girl. Is Annie the key to solving the mystery in which he now finds himself? Brian tells the story of his past to Tiffany and Annie, a story of when he first saw the little girl, Claire. The next night, Brian and Annie are battling the dead for Tiffany's life.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus restored in conformity with the recently discovered remains

The long-awaited English-language translation of Hervé Guibert's arresting journals

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.