When two young girls go missing in rural Herefordshire, police constable and wizard-in-training Peter Grant is sent out of London to check that nothing supernatural is involved. It's purely routine - Nightingale, Peter's superior, thinks he'll be done in less than a day. But Peter's never been one to walk away from someone in trouble, so when nothing overtly magical turns up, he volunteers his services to the local police who need all the help they can get. But because the universe likes a joke as much as the next sadistic megalomaniac, Peter soon comes to realise that dark secrets underlie the picturesque fields and villages of the countryside and there might just be work for Britain's most junior wizard after all. Soon Peter is in a vicious race against time, caught up in a deep mystery and having to tackle local cops and local gods. And what's more all the shops are closed by 4pm ...
