As the shadow of World War II descends over Europe, Detective Inspector Thomas Lamb hunts for an elusive killer behind the veil of a seemingly charming English village. German bombers are arriving daily, seeking to crush England. But in a rural Hampshire village, things have remained fairly quietuntil an elderly loner, Will Blackwell, is brutally murdered. The method of his killing bears the hallmarks of the traditional vanquishing of a witch, and indeed, local legend claims that as a boy, Blackwell encountered a ghostly black dog sent from the devil, who struck a bargain for Blackwells soul. Not long after the murder, a young woman who is carrying the illegitimate child of a fighter pilot also is violently killed then a local drunkard ends up in the race of an abandoned mill with the back of his head bashed in.
