The English inspector confronts a cultist enclave where mysticism meets murder in the series that inspired the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders. The Lodge of the Golden Windhorse has provided the citizens of Compton Dando with splendid fodder for gossip, prompting speculation of arcane rituals and bizarre sexual practices. But with the murder of the commune's leaders, the rumor-mill goes into overdrive. Now Chief Inspector Barnaby must separate rumor from reality in a case where the facts are often stranger than fiction. The residents of the Windhorse commune may have been seeking the simple life, but they're all concealing complicated pasts—or past lives. Macavity Award-winning author Caroline Graham once again demonstrates why she is "simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie" ( The Sunday Times, UK).