''The new master of menace'' Sunday TimesA blizzard a century ago has passed into fable in the Endlands. Trapped by the snow, the residents of the valley found themselves at the mercy of the Devil, who brought death and destruction before being driven back to the moors. Now, the three farming families of the Endlands face a new test. The patriarch of the community, the Gaffer, has died and his grandson, John Pentecost, must decide if he will return and work the land in his grandfather''s stead. He feels the pull of duty, loyalty and tradition: obligations that his pregnant wife, Kat, finds hard to understand as an outsider. And as the celebrations of the Devil''s exile draw near, she realises that there is a darkness in this place which cannot be repelled. BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, FT, METRO AND MAIL ON SUNDAY''A work of goose-flesh eeriness'' The Spectator