THE PLAGUE STONE by Gill White

Meadcombe, a picture postcard Devon village, is built around the Plague Stone. A giant piece of rock which tourists come to photograph, this towering landmark is believed to possess magical powers.

One September night, in the village of Meadcombe, 3 wishes are made simultaneously. Marian Law wishes her mother in law Constance would die - tonight. Teenager Melanie Tandy wishes for freedom and Sonia Hanaford wishes she will escape the humiliation of bankruptcy.

By dawn the next day, Constance is dead, Melanie is missing and Sonia is in possession of a cheque for a quarter of a million pounds. Is it magic, some dark force at play? No, not really. Constance was old and senile, so surely her days were numbered. It was merely coincidence she died when she did. Melanie was rebellious, hated her parents, her father who suffers from chronic depression, her ineffective mother who constantly makes excuses for his lack of love and interest in his family. And Sonia, well, simply put, Sonia blackmailed her father in law Stanley for the money that she needed to keep her house, her status and all her comfortable possessions.

But now Melanie is still missing and nobody knows where she could be. And there is the guilt. They are all besieged by guilt. Melanie's mother, Janey, feels guilty for not loving her daughter the way she should have, always putting her sick husband first and trying to make his life easier, guilty because Marian is taking all the attention for herself and away from Janey. Marian feels guilty because she hated Constance, hated the burden of looking after her, being so recently widowed herself and missing her husband, because she knew there was a problem with Constance last night and she didn't bother to go and check up on the old lady, and she saw Melanie talking to someone in a car late last night, and now Melanie is missing. Sonia feels guilty because of what she did to Stanley to get the money out of him and now she is very much afraid that he might have gone off and done something stupid, possibly with Melanie. So the tensions mount, and nothing will ever be the same again in the village of Meadcombe.

As Melanie continues to be missing, so Janey's imagination and fears slowly start to drive her mad. And she begins to plan her revenge on the evil ones who have taken her child...

A dark, scary story of witchcraft and madness, both real and imagined, and a terrible vengeance taken on an unsuspecting village.

Happy reading!