On a bitter winter evening in December, Reverend Peter Barton is calling on his parishioners in the neighboring village. He leaves at dusk to walk the five miles home, taking the path through the ancient forest.
The next time he’s seen, his corpse is sprawled on the forest floor. There’s a raw wound in his chest and a great red hole where there should have been flesh.
Detectives Lambert and Hook begin their investigation but can find nobody with a word to say against the clean-cut vicar.
Their limited list of suspects diminishes further when the man living rough in the forest is found headless among the meagre paraphernalia of his mysterious life.
That’s when the press decide a serial killer is at large.
Lambert, however, is not convinced these are the senseless killings of a maniac. Though the motive may be difficult to see, he’s certain it’s there. But the more he presses Woodford’s residents, the more they hide behind curtained windows. What dark secrets are they so anxious to preserve?