With this haunting tale of two tragic lives - separated by centuries but bonded by events - Jane Adams takes a huge step forward as one of the most original and talented crime writers of today.Six months after the horrific petrol bomb attack that left him severely burned, Sergeant Ray Flowers moves to his late aunt's cottage to contemplate his future. According to his aunt's diaries, the cottage is often frequented by a mysterious woman referred to only as 'Kitty'. But this is no ordinary visitor. For, Ray learns, Katherine Hallam once lived in the cottage - and was tried as a witch in 1643 . . . As he searches for an explanation for his own appalling injuries, Ray becomes increasingly captivated by the young woman who, like him, bears terrible facial scars. With the help of archive librarian Sarah Gordon he slowly pieces together her tragic tale, played out against the menacing backdrop of the English Civil War. But what Ray cannot even begin to comprehend is the role he himself played in sealing Kitty's fate - more than three hundred years before he was born . . .