Fine condition.HarperCollins,2002.First edition -first printing(1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2).Purple hardback(gilt lettering to the spine,small nick on the edge of the back cover)with Dj(small nick and crease on the Dj cover),both in fine condition.Illustrated with a map inside the front and back cover.Nice and clean pages with light shelf wear on the outer edges,small pencil mark impression on the first blank page of the book,very small mark inside the back Dj cover.Nice and clean book.542pp.Price un-clipped. This is another paragraph Review: When Emma Dickson chances upon an advertisement for a cottage that is being sold in the Essex countryside, memories of childhood holidays flood back to her and she is overwhelmed by the urge to return to that idyllic setting. She quits her job in the City, splits up with her boyfriend and buys the cottage. Everybody thinks that she is crazy, but she thinks that it is the best thing she has ever done. Her plan is to start a new life, surviving financially by selling herbs and doing a bit of freelance financial work. Her new picturesque home, however, has a dark side. As she soon discovers, the area into which she has moved has an eventful history. It was in this part of Essex that the Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins lived in the 17th century, and his ghost is said to haunt the old shop in the high street. It was there that he would take suspected witches and torture them. When a documentary film crew arrives in the area and start to ask questions about ghostly apparitions, people begin to get edgy and unusual things begin to occur. The spirits of the witches seem to be returning. Local clergyman Mike Sinclair is deeply troubled by the increase in supernatural activity in the area. As a man of the cloth, he feels he should be doing something. After all, it will soon be Halloween. Barbara Erskine has built a considerable following for her densely plotted, imaginative novels of romantic suspense, and this one is just as accomplished as its predecessors.