Spooks can’t murder you. Only people can do that.
On her way to recover a stolen scroll with occult power, retired professor Blythe Golightly glimpses the supernatural Black Monk. Just like her, he’s after the scroll. He’s the same Black Monk that Chekhov wrote about—a monk in a black robe whose image was captured in a mirage and has been reflected in duplicate mirages ever since.
Unnerved, Blythe goes on to her planned meeting with a U.S. Customs agent at the thief’s refuge—a castle nestled like a medieval vision on his Colorado ranch. The agent confiscates the scroll, but later is found murdered in a Vail hotel room. What’s more, the scroll is missing.
Who killed the agent? The thief, who is an Enochian magician? His apprentice? One of his ranch guests? Or the inhuman Black Monk? One of them is a murderer.
In her zeal to recover the occult scroll, Blythe becomes the killer’s next target. She must rely on ranch foreman “Cognac Kody” for protection… if she can trust him. Blythe soon discovers one too many secrets—and unearths a conspiracy beyond her worst nightmares.