From the bestselling author of Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month The Specimens comes a new historic novel set during the Scottish witch trials filled with confessions and betrayal. Rural Scotland, 1629. Amidst the bogs and oat fields, children are going missing, and others seem to have fallen under a malevolent spell. When a young serving girl is imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft, it falls on healer and midwife Mòrag to uncover the truth behind the matter. However, investigation only raises more questions, and soon a violent truth comes to light which threatens to upend local life. As tensions in the community reach a fever pitch, allegiances shift, lives unravel, and Mòrag struggles to save the life of an innocent girl. But in a village gripped by fear and paranoia, this may demand the greatest sacrifice of all.