According to ancient folklore in Scotland and northen England, the yellowhammer bird is said to drink a drop of the Devil's blood every May Day morning, but for pretty, young, Catriona McPhee in rural Argyll in 1846, this mere titbit will never satisfy her dark soul. From the day she arrives to work as a maid at Ardnasaig House on the bleak shores of Loch Nonach during the time of the Clearances, she brings a growing fear to those already there. Yet nothing - not even her shocking secret - will dent her ambition. However, Janet Lennox, the housekeeper's plain, less-educated daughter,...

This literary thriller mainly set in London and the south of France, draws upon parallels of evil through the ages. From 1271-1310 after the purging of the Knights Templar in 1307 and the round-up and torture of homosexuals from the French Riviera during World War II, to 1983 and young Catherine and Clement Ash's loveless marriage. It also charts one deranged old man's unfinished business leading to a different, even more deadly Apocalypse.