Whitchurch Manor has always lived in the shadow of the dead past. Built onto the ruined cloisters of a priory, the house stands next to an ancient Long Barrow - a reminder of a savage prehistory whose terrible violence lives on in the ritualistic murders of the so-called Dorset Killer, who stalks the countryside. But for Christopher Haddon, the small gathering at Whitchurch is about to take a more personally horrific turn. For tonight, he will not only learn at last the true parentage of the daughter he has raised as his own - he will also have to face the terror of seeing that daughter murdered, and know the terrible desire for vengeance at all costs...

Originally published in 1939 under the pseudonym "Christopher Haddon" this brooding psychological murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction is in fact the work of John Palmer, who, with Hilary Saint George Saunders, also wrote mysteries under the pen name "Francis Beeding".