The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland

The Owl Killers

Karen Maitland

This gothic thriller has the power to both chill and to thrill. Set in the Dark Ages, the village of Ulewic is being terrorised by the pagan Owl Masters who rule through superstition and fear. A group of religious women are the only ones who have the zeal to end the Owl Masters’ reign of terror. Their faith is put to the ultimate test as they go head to head with their adversary with stomach-churning consequences.

Extract
A large group of villagers, men and women, had encircled the blaze and were dancing round it, their hands linked and arms raised. Their feet stomped in a slow, heavy rhythm to the beat of a drum. Some of the dancers were dressed in long white shifts, their faces masked by wooden carvings of human faces or shrouded with white cloth in which holes had been cut for eyes and mouths, crude imitations of the dead, come back to dance among the living.
Parallels
  • The Crucible by Arthur Miller
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Violence
Explicit sexual content