The big new novel by the bestselling author of WHISPERS IN THE SAND: a gripping tale of witchcraft and romance, past and present, as her modern-day characters are caught up in a battle that has been raging for hundreds of years. Across the peninsular the mist rolled in, its icy fingers curling up the cliffs. Inside their houses people stirred in their sleep and children cried in the dark. The parish of Manningtree and Mistley has a dark history. In 1644, with England in the grip of a Puritan government, Matthew Hopkins, Cromwell's Witchfinder General, tortured scores of women there, including Liza, the herbalist, whose cottage still stands in Mistley, and Sarah Paxman, the daughter of the manor. And today the spirits of Hopkins and his victims haunt the old shop in the High Street, they say. Emma Dickson has given up her high-flying career to live in Liza's cottage, but now she is being driven half-mad by visions of the past; of Sarah's battle to save herself and Liza from the Witchfinder. In despair, Emma turns to the local rector for help, but he, too, is in the grip of something inexplicable - something which threatens Emma. And, as the feast of Halloween approaches, Emma is caught up in a struggle that has been raging for centuries, as old enemies reach out across the years for their revenge. Can she stop the forces unleashed from the past wreaking their devastation in the present?

Another good book by Barbara Erskine that I read quite a while ago, It's now going off to Candy-is-Dandy who won it in a live bookswap.

I've never read any Barbara Erskine and then I pick up 2 in a week. I really need to retire to get more reading done! Thanks calalilly.

This has been waiting for me for a long time. I wanted to read it because it is set in Mistley, a place I know on the Suffolk coast, not far from me. Finally, due to being in lockdown due to the coroavirus, I have more time to catch up in some of those books that have been languishing in my shelves.
This was a good story, an easy read, if you don’t get scared easily, with apparitions and possessions occurring in the modern day by ghosts from the past. Based on Matthew Hopkins the witch finder general.
I am now passing this in to a friend who knows Mistley well.