The Master House, close to the Welsh border, is medieval and slowly
falling into ruins. Now the house and its surrounding land have been
sold to the Duchy of Cornwall. But the Duchy's plans to renovate the
house and its outbuildings are frustrated when the specialist builder
refuses to work there. 'This is a place, ' he tells the Prince's
land-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 and the nearby church, built by the Knights Templar whose shadow
still envelopes isolated Garway Hill and its scattered communities. Why
did all the local inns have astrological names? What deep history lies
behind the vicious feud between two local families? And what happened
here to intimidate even the great Edwardian ghost-story writer M R
James?
When Merrily learns that she - and even her daughter, Jane - are under
surveillance by the security services, she's ready to quit. But a sudden
death changes everything, and she returns to Garway to uncover fibres of
fear and hatred stitched into history and now insidiously twisted in the
corridors - and the cloisters - of power.
