Frigid temperatures and snow-swept moors set the stage for Thomas Ward’s latest adventures as apprentice to the Spook, a formidable practitioner who keeps witches, boggarts, ghasts, and a plethora of other evil creatures at bay. Soon after arriving at the Spook’s winter home, Thomas begins to suspect he’s not been told the whole truth about Meg, a lamia witch who seems to be both loved and imprisoned by the Spook. When the Spook is injured on the job, Thomas must face grave danger without his master’s help as he seeks out Meg’s real story and struggles to escape the clutches of a former apprentice to the Spook who has turned to dark necromancy. Tom learns of events from the Spook’s past that illustrate the fine line between trust and betrayal—the Spook may be powerful in his profession, but he is also human and fallible. Meanwhile, Tom’s friend Alice, a witch finding her own path between good and evil, plays a crucial role in the book’s exciting conclusion. In this third volume of the series, author Joseph Delaney is still on a roll, as he continues to tell of Tom’s satisfyingly scary apprenticeship. (Ages 10–14)

It's going to be a long, hard, cruel winter. And there couldn't be a worse place to spend it than up on Anglezarke.

Thomas Ward is the apprentice for the local Spook, who captures witches and drives away ghosts. As the weather gets colder and the nights draw in, the Spook receives an unexpected visitor. Tom doesn't know who the stranger is or what he wants, but the Spook suddenly decides it's time to travel to his winter house, Anglezarke. Tom has heard it will be a bleak, forbidding place, and that menacing creatures are starting to stir somewhere on the moors nearby.

Can anything prepare Tom for what he finds there? What if the rumors about the evil beast called the Golgoth are true? And how much danger will Tom be in if the secrets the Spook has been trying to hide from the world are revealed?