The Quick And The Dead — Alison Joseph

Working in a hostel for the homeless, Sister Agnes had, for a while, felt an unaccustomed contentment with her faith. But when Sam, a sixteen-year-old runaway, is forced to return to her family and then goes missing, Agnes's hard-won equilibrium vanishes. Furious with the authorities, she feels she must do what she can to pull the runaway girl back from the brink of potential self-destruction.

Sam's friends recall her saying she planned to join anti-road protesters in their tree-top encampment at the edge of Epping Forest. Sure enough Agnes finds Sam there, amidst the beggars, travelers and anarchists, revelling in their fireside talk of apocalypse. But she is also contemplating returning to live with the father who deserted her sixteen years earlier and who, suspiciously to Agnes's mind, has suddenly reappeared. For the moment, however, Sam seems secure at the camp, a magic fortress in the sky, though its tents and tree houses can only provide a temporary bulwark against destruction.

But even that safety is illusory. Only hours after Agnes's arrival a body is found. Of a brutally murdered young girl…