Nick Madrid isn't exactly thrilled when his best friend in journalism-OK, his only friend in journalism-the Bitch of the Broadsheets, Bridget Frost, commissions him to spend a night in a haunted place on the Sussex Downs and live to tell the tale. Especially as living to tell the tale isn't made an urgent priority. But Nick stumbles on a hotter story when he discovers a dead man hanging upside down from an ancient oak. Why was he killed? Is there a connection to the nearby New Age conference centre? Or to The Great Beast, the Hollywood movie about Aleister Crowley, filming down in Brighton? New Age meets The Old Religion as Nick is bothered, bewildered but not necessarily bewitched by pagans, Satanists and a host of assorted metaphysicians. Seances, sabbats, a horse-ride from Hell and a kick-boxing zebra all come Nick's way as he obstinately tracks a treasure once in the possession of Crowley.