For a reader of modern literature, a new bookshop in town presents an exhilarating prospect. To browse and find a book that you find fascinating is a worthwhile pastime for a bibliophile. There are as many book subjects as there are readers, different books for different people.

Human nature's depravities only need a little encouragement to thrive. So, when the owner of a new, spooky bookshop caters for, and encourages, people's immoralities, chaos and mayhem ensue.

Detective Inspector Donald Lawrence, late of Scotland Yard, has been appointed the new Chief of Police at Cannock, Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England. Following a short, quiet baptism into the post, his work becomes deluged with multiple murders, suicides, major terrorist incidents, a deranged arsonist, a bank robbery and troubling cases of indecent exposure, beheadings and a man feeding his wife's body to his pigs. Mass murders on an industrial scale prompt the inevitable conclusion that a serial killer can be added to Inspector Lawrence's phenomenal caseload.

These crimes are all perpetrated by ordinary people, hitherto regular, respectable members of society. Their lives change when they enter Godfrey's Bookshop. Doctor Godfrey Warlock, the bookshop's proprietor, presents a mysterious figure who exists on humanity's edge. Who is he? Where did he come from? Inspector Lawrence's former guvnor suggests Godfrey is an evil man, the most formidable opponent any police force have faced before. Discover how Inspector Lawrence and his inexperienced team battles against a daunting foe, possessing inconceivable talents to bring about the end of everyday life in the United Kingdom, Doctor Warlock is always one step ahead of the law.