Book 1 of the Crucible Trilogy.
1348 . . .
. . . and the black pestilence decimates Europe. Corpses pile high in streets, crops rot in fields, infants are left to suckle at the decomposing breasts of their dead mothers. But this creeping death is only a harbinger of the horror to come: as the Church is torn asunder demons escape from Hell to scurry across the face of the earth.
1377 . . .
. . . and the Archangel Michael sends Brother Thomas Neville on a mission across Europe to find the means to thrust the demons back beyond the doorway of Hell. But it has been thirty years, and the minions of Satan have had more than enough time to prepare.
As Thomas Neville encounters angels and demons, saints and witches, he comes to realise that the armies of God and Satan are arraying themselves for the final battle . . . and that his soul is to be the battleground.
We now live in the aftermath of that battle, but are we sure who won?
