For generations, stories have been told about the ruined old house in the marsh outside Wakefield. Stories of hidden treasure, sinister night-time cries, and ghostly figures doomed to haunt the lonely estate for all eternity as punishment for some terrible crime. This winter, it seems the old tales might just turn out to be true... England, AD 1330 John Little, a bailiff living in Yorkshire, has little interest in ghost stories, having seen enough horrors among the living to bother much about the dead. The strange accounts from his fellow villagers have everyone talking though, and it's not long before he's asked to accompany a group of curious locals on nocturnal visits to the house in the marsh. There are more worrying concerns in northern England however, as autumn gives way to winter and rumours of rogue bailiffs attacking, and even murdering people in their own homes, begin to circulate. Along with his friends - ill-tempered Will Scaflock and the renowned friar, Robert Stafford - John is drawn inexorably into a dangerous adventure that will leave yet more people dead and only add to the eerie legends which will pass into English folklore for centuries to come. Can John and his companions uncover the truth about the house in the marsh and its terrible secrets? And will they be able to forever exorcise the ghost haunting Wakefield, or will this Christmas be anything but merry? Following on from Faces of Darkness and Sworn to God, this action-packed new novella is sure to brighten up even the frostiest winter nights for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow, and Conn Iggulden! PRAISE FOR STEVEN A. McKAY "...the historical detail is seamlessly melded into a plot bursting with adrenaline and suspense...To my mind this novel is everything historical fiction should be and more." - JAMES VELLA-BARDON, author of The Sheriff's Catch "as a storyteller McKay is up there with the best of them." - David's Book Blurg "Can you hear that? No? Nothing? Yeah, nothing at all, because that silence is the sound of all the Historical Fiction competition - so far behind Steven A. McKay these days, that you can't hear them!" - STEVE DENTON/SPEESH READS "Dark age adventure at its gripping best." - MATTHEW HARFFY, author of Wolf of Wessex "Lucia is a story that is at once desperate and uplifting, a story that touches you deep in your soul. If you only read one more book this year, it should be Lucia." - Sharon Bennett Connolly, author of Silk and the Sword

The House by the Marsh lays bare the almost taboo subject of grief, love and hope for men and women in their later years. With humour and compassion the author peels back the defensive layers of apparent competence to reveal a vulnerable humanity, and shows the miraculous effect of Love in all her guises.

In 2003, Bill Sargent bought a big pink house in Ipswich, Massachusetts. His home sits on what is known as the Great Marsh, a fascinating patch of wetland shared by Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Sargent received a grant to study some of the rare and endangered ground-nesting birds that inhabit the public land adjacent to his property. Ipswich Marsh is about these birds, but much else as well. Organized by the seasons of the year, The House on Ipswich Marsh features SargentÕs trademark interplay of information about the natural world, ecology, and politics. In ÒSpring,Ó the reader learns about the geological history of the Marsh; the migration patterns of bobolinks; the courtship flights of woodcocks; ticks and Lyme disease; the mating of horseshoe crabs and the underwater arrival of zooplankton, fish eggs, and moon jellyfish. ÒSummerÓ introduces plate tectonics and glaciers; sea level rise and glacial rebound; diving at night among lobsters and stone crabs; a day on CraneÕs Beach; and a bike trip on Argilla Road. ÒAutumnÓ illuminates fishing; the natural and cultural history of Hog Island; harvest time on Appelton Farm; and a Native American Thanksgiving. ÒWinterÓ describes the formation of dunes and sandbars; the mating behavior of seals; coyote hunting deer at night; and a late-winter blizzard in which Sargent spies a red-tailed hawk, waiting, like the author, for the return of spring.