The Witch's Familiar — Brian Battison

Nearly four hundred years ago Isobel Perkins was burned as a witch. As the flames licked her body she hurled a curse at the aldermen and their issue for all time. Joyce Regent, a London author hounded by the press, comes to live in the witch's cottage. Has the witch returned to Bridgetown - and with her the curse? Descendents of the aldermen are frightened - but frightened enough to murder her? Pugnacious new Superintendent, John Newton thinks so, but DCI Jim Ashworth is following a quite different line of enquiry.