Publisher's Synopsis
For generations, stories have been told about the ruined old house in the marsh outside Wakefield. Stories of hidden treasure, sinister night-time cries, and ghostly figures doomed to haunt the lonely estate for all eternity as punishment for some terrible crime.
This winter, it seems the old tales might just turn out to be true...
John Little, a bailiff living in Yorkshire, has little interest in ghost stories, having seen enough horrors among the living to bother much about the dead. The strange accounts from his fellow villagers have everyone talking though, and it's not long before he's asked to accompany a group of curious locals on nocturnal visits to the house in the marsh.
There are more worrying concerns in northern England however, as autumn gives way to winter and rumours of rogue bailiffs attacking, and even murdering people in their own homes, begin to circulate.
Along with his friends - ill-tempered Will Scaflock and the renowned friar, Robert Stafford - John is drawn inexorably into a dangerous adventure that will leave yet more people dead and only add to the eerie legends which will pass into English folklore for centuries to come.
Can John and his companions uncover the truth about the house in the marsh and its terrible secrets? And will they be able to forever exorcise the ghost haunting Wakefield, or will this Christmas be anything but merry? Following on from Faces of Darkness and Sworn to God, this action-packed new novella is sure to brighten up even the frostiest winter nights for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow, and Conn Iggulden! PRAISE FOR STEVEN A. McKAY
"...the historical detail is seamlessly melded into a plot bursting with adrenaline and suspense...To my mind this novel is everything historical fiction should be and more." - JAMES VELLA-BARDON, author of The Sheriff's Catch
"as a storyteller McKay is up there with the best of them." - David's Book Blurg
"Can you hear that? No? Nothing? Yeah, nothing at all, because that silence is the sound of all the Historical Fiction competition - so far behind Steven A. McKay these days, that you can't hear them!" - STEVE DENTON/SPEESH READS
"Dark age adventure at its gripping best." - MATTHEW HARFFY, author of Wolf of Wessex
"Lucia is a story that is at once desperate and uplifting, a story that touches you deep in your soul. If you only read one more book this year, it should be Lucia." - Sharon Bennett Connolly, author of Silk and the Sword
