Detective Lavender mystery

"Northumberland, November 1809: A menacing figure stalks women through Hareshaw Woods and a beautiful, young heiress disappears from her locked bedchamber at Linn Hagh. The townsfolk cry 'witchcraft' and the local constabulary are baffled. Fearing for her safety, Helen Carnaby's worried uncle sends out for help from Bow Street magistrates' court in London. Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Woods now face their toughest and most dangerous case. The servants and the local gypsies won't speak to them, Helen's siblings are sly and uncooperative and the sullen local farmers are about to take the law into their own hands. Isolated in this beautiful but remote community, Lavender and Woods find themselves trapped in the middle of a simmering feud and are alarmed to discover a sinister world of madness and violence lurking behind the heavy oak door of the ancient pele tower at Linn Hagh. Helen Carnaby's disappearance is to prove one of the most perplexing mysteries of Lavender's career. Why did she flee on that wintry October night? How did she get out of her locked bed chamber? And where is she now?"--Page [4] of cover