The Mark of Cain

Lindsey Barraclough

may, 2016 · Candlewick Press

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A spine-chilling companion to Long Lankin, here is the story of a wronged witch’s revenge, spanning generations and crossing the shadowy line between life and death.


In 1567, baby Aphra is found among the reeds and rushes by two outcast witches. Even as an infant, her gifts in the dark craft are clear. But when her guardians succumb to an angry mob, Aphra is left to fend for herself. She is shunned and feared by all but one man, the leper known as Long Lankin. Hounded and ostracized, the two find solace only in each other, but even this respite is doomed, and Aphra’s bitterness poisons her entire being. Afflicted with leprosy, tortured and about to be burned as a witch, she manages one final enchantment—a curse on her tormentor’s heirs. Now, in 1962, Cora and Mimi, the last of a cursed line, are trapped in an ancient home on a crumbling estate in deepest winter, menaced by a spirit bent on revenge. Are their lives and souls forfeit forever?

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Lindsey Barraclough is the author of the acclaimed Long Lankin, a companion book to The Mark of Cain. "The story can be read independently of the first," she says, "although it continues the theme of long-ago horrors — particularly witchcraft and revenge — seeping unsettlingly into the future." Lindsey Barraclough lives in London with her family.