Septimus and the Stone of Offering

A mysterious fire on a Welsh hillside on a clear April morning; the remains of a white bird lying in ash on a tombstone with a dagger in its breast; no wonder the Reverend Septimus Treloar, ex-CID Chief Inspector, thinks there''s something worth investigating in the small village of Hafod Maenen. With only a handful of clues at his disposal but a great deal of canny instinct, Septimus is drawn into a revolving plot concerning political conspiracy, ancient rites and dark magic powers at work in the depths of the Welsh valleys.

In this, the third of his wonderful Septimus series for young adults, Stephen Chance once more depicts his eccentric hero as he wittingly plays his hand against the forces of evil. Thrillingly plotted, yet with a sense of humour that enlivens the detective story-telling, Septimus and the Stone Offering (1976) is, in the words of The Listener: ''grippingly told . . . as effective in catching the strange, precise landscape, over and under the surface, as in understanding its humans.''