"An arresting mystery with a startling finale." Booklist.

A Sister Joan Mystery.

Evil has crept into the peaceful lives of the Daughters of Compassion. At first there are only small signs of its presence. The docility of Sister Joan's pupils at the convent school. The disappearance of holy water and candles from the chapel. The midnight flight of a beautiful au pair from the home of one of Sister Joan's students.

But when a handsome adolescent boy inexplicably vanishes, Sister Joan knows that murder has come to her corner of Cornwall. And with it, an evil as old as the human race . . .