‘Excellent mystery featuring clever detection and brilliant characters, in a well-imagined, post-apocalyptic society. Highly recommended.’
Brian Price, author of the DC Mel Cotton series

This winter, we will all be facing incredible challenges. With recession looming, growing NHS backlogs, an unprecedented energy crisis and widening inequalities following the pandemic, it can be hard to know where to find hope. In Ben Mears’ new novel, we discover what difference courage can make in a dystopian world very like our own...

‘Gives me great hope for many of my friends ... Buy it, read it, and pass it on.’
Gavin Calver, CEO, Evangelical Alliance

When Manoj Raithatha was born in Watford in the 1970s, the country he grew up in and the faith he followed were very different from those he knows today. Back then, no one could have imagined that this shy, young Hindu would become a committed, public Christian, and that this child of immigrants would become the first South Asian Chair of the Board of the Evangelical Alliance. But how did this happen?

Prologue
1st Elventide, winter 1795 ad (after Doon) 

A thick snow carpeted the field, though the fall had ceased some hours before. It now rested like a work complete. Like deep frosting on an endless cake, concealing all. Hiding who knew what beneath. 
A boy threw a stick. His wolfhound fetched it. A tried and tested game. A scene familiar throughout ages. 
And yet, there was something different here. Something wrong...

Many years ago, before I was a Christian, at a time when I was chasing money and essentially living for myself, I would often say to my wife that I wanted what her mother had. Life hadn’t dealt her a great hand, yet she was by far the happiest person I knew.

She had a peace and joy that were painfully lacking in my own life. Where did they come from?