The knocker hung on a very special door - oak, heavy, with a late-Gothic arch, and apparently a late-Gothic curse. Then the door was moved from an old house, once an abbey, to the village church. Legend held that sinners who seized the knocker had their hands burned by the cold iron. But Gerry Bracewell didn't die of burns, neither did a second victim. Had they knocked on death's door, or was a more down-to-earth killer at large?

Detective Chief Inspector George Felse, returning from a weekend in Wales, had passed through the village of Mottisham and watched the ceremony to re-dedicate the door. Little did he know that soon he would be called back to investigate murder...