The Owl Killers: Karen Maitland

England, 1321: Deep in the heart of the countryside lies the isolated village of Ulewic - governed by a sinister regime of Owl Masters: men cloaked in masks and secrecy, ruling with violence, intimidation, and terrifying fiery rites. It is a pagan world of terror and blackmail, where neighbour denounces neighbour and sin is punishable by death. This dark status quo is disturbed by the arrival of a house of religious women who establish a community - a beguinage - outside the village. Why do their crops succeed when village crops fail, and their cattle survive despite the plague? But petty jealousy turns deadly when the women give refuge to a young martyr. For she dies a gruesome death after spitting the sacramental host into flames that can't burn it - what magic is this!? Or is the martyr now a Saint, and the host a holy relic? The battle lines are drawn: accusations of witchcraft and heresy run rife while the Owl Masters rain down hellfire and torment on the women, who must look to their faith to save them; as innocents are swept into the drama; as Ulewic is ravaged by flood and disease; and with villagers driven by fear, a secret inside the beguinage will draw the desperate and the depraved - until masks are dropped, faith is tested…and every lie is exposed.