Mary Stevens is a Maori teacher brought from New Zealand to teach in the moors of North Yorkshire in the 19th Century. When her employer dies suddenly, she’s left penniless, and accepts what seems like a generous offer to work at Sir Nathaniel Cole’s Hawkser Manor. Over time, she begins to uncover Cole’s ulterior motives that threaten her very existence, and expose the darkest, bloodiest sides of colonialism. Taratoa Stappard’s gothic horror debut is at once a terrifying ride and a razor-sharp critique of the British Empire’s underlying evil.