The Witches' Song. Larh Thomas Mysteries, #3

South coast of Cornwall, 2018A rock singer invites Larh down to the Sawmills studio on the Fowey river to help with bad publicity. He is trying to make an album about local wise-women and witches from previous centuries, and how they became victims of persecution. This becomes complicated by both outside and inside forces, and the band is forced to relocate to a medieval mansion, Fowey Place, preceded over by a very unlady-like Lady of the manor.
Cornwall in winter is wet and empty and far removed from the comfortable summer atmosphere. The pressure of tourism has raised house prices on the coast and distorted the local economy. Still, somewhere in the quiet narrow roads, and dark valleys, the old covens do meet and hark back to the old magic. The musicians attempt to contact these women and channel their ideas, but this leads to a backlash from the locals, as a series of unlucky coincidences are blamed on the band.
There is also a lucrative reunion in the offing of the singer's previous band, The Flowers, which causes much more interest from the music industry. Then Larh unearths a connection between the Lady of Fowey Place and a local drug smuggler, which puts her and the band in danger. Problems from The Flowers complicated history also start to resurface, leading to a series of events which changes the balance of power between local drug gangs, and the Lady and the band get caught up in the fall-out.