Cheshire. May Day, 1753. Tabitha De Vallory believes her life is perfect: she has an imposing home with all the comforts she has ever desired, and is expecting her first child with doting husband Nathaniel De Vallory.
But Tabitha’s happiness is shaken when a girl is slaughtered beneath the Mondrem Oak on the family’s forest estate. Tabitha vows to find the killer.
Nearby, enigmatic Baptist Gunn and his followers are convinced that a second messiah will be born, amid blood and strife, close to the oak on Midsummer’s Day.
Could the girl’s murder be linked to Gunn’s cryptic prophecy? Do his wild claims of a second saviour spell danger for Tabitha and her unborn child?
As Midsummer’s Day draws closer, Tabitha soon learns the destiny that threatens her and those she holds most dear.
The Prophet by Martine Bailey, her second Tabitha Hart mystery, is published on 26 February, 2021.
Martine has written a feature for Historia about the many superstitions that surrounded pregnancy and childbirth; read A charmed life.
