Hodder Silver: Demon's Crossing

When the dust had cleared Tom and his father looked down at the piled rubble at their feet. The top of something very smooth and curved emerged from the dirt. Tom's dad said softly, "Ye gods . . ." and Tom's stomach turned over. "I think," said his father, "we'd better phone the police . . ."

Tom and his family have just moved to a crumbling old water mill near a river creek in the wilds of Cornwall. Tom's parents have big plans to restore the mill, and at first Tom is a very reluctant helper. He can't imagine anything more boring. But then he glimpses something in the rotting wheel of the mill, and it chills him to his bones: a grotesque, crone-like creature, neither human nor animal. Surely he must have imagined it . . .?

But a chilling discovery made inside the mill forces Tom to confront the truth. There is something there . . . something that should have been destroyed a very long time ago. And it wants Tom. Alive . . . or dead.