When a man is found brutally murdered in Whitton’s monastery, Dr Stenner, Whitton’s president, is horrified. Could it possibly be the work of one of his priests? A nightmare begins as another brazen killing follows. The murderer appears to be a madman. Then, into the whirlpool of fear and violence, steps a cold and steely young woman who, it seems, has a very specific use for a priest gone bad. Stenner knows he must somehow control the fear whirling around the monastery, for ‘death outside these walls was simply death; death within them might be called murder, vampirism, witchery’…

Tom Keneally is one of Australia’s most loved and acclaimed writers; with this new edition of his first novel we can celebrate fifty years of his writing and wisdom, and see where it all began.