The Busker — Guy N. Smith

There had been buskers in the cathedral city of Lichfield for centuries, but never one like Jonjo. Crowds are drawn irresistibly by his strange, haunting, hypnotic music, a weird melody that lingers with the listeners long afterwards, a nuisance by day but terrifying in the nocturnal hours, calling them, commanding them.

The Kirby's have forsaken a secure lifestyle for an idealistic organic farming project. They incur the contempt of the Deeps, an agronomist who seems hell-bent on destroying the environment with his poisonous herbicides and pesticides. Then the terror begins...

Sharon, the Deeps rebellious, teenage daughter, disappears. The Kirby's milking goat vanishes without a trace. And the harvest festival becomes a nightmarish inferno of death. Jonjo's warning of impending doom is coming true as tiny corn people are glimpsed flitting through the autumnal mists. Then the crop circles appear as if to herald Armageddon. And throughout, Jonjo's melody is a symphony of madness and death. What is happening? Why? Only the Busker knows the answers.