Phil Rickman: Candlenight (UK 2013)

From the Publisher:
'Corpse-candles. Phantom funerals. The bird of death. It was insidious...'
For Bethan, the schoolteacher, the old superstitions woven into the social fabric of her West Wales village are primitive and distasteful. Which is why she's pleased to welcome the sophisticated newcomers: London journalist Giles Freeman and his wife Claire. Surely they'll let in some fresh air?

But the Freemans are keen to absorb this different culture, a whole new way of life - rejecting the advice of an old colleague who warns them of a hard and bitter land where they've always danced on the edge of the abyss. They soon learn that this community hides an ancient, bloody and pagan secret - one that will haunt them forever...

Phil Rickman: Candlenight. A remote Welsh mountain village hides an ancient and bloody secret. Corvus, ISBN: 9780857896940 (January, 2013), 512 p., £8.99, eBook £4.99.

Phil Rickman: Candlenight (USA 1995)

From the Publisher:
Here the corpse-candle remains alight, and the Bird of Death beats its wings at the window...
For a young professional couple like Giles and Claire, the village was idyllic -- a quaint, peaceful place, far from the noise and crowds of the city. Though the locals could be standoffish at times, Giles and Claire did their best to participate in village life. But their efforts to fit in seemed to lead nowhere. And the more they tried, the more unwelcoming the place became -- until the very town itself seemed to rise up against their presence. Ancient secrets and dark superstitions took a hideous, living shape. And soon they learned the terrifying truth about what it meant to be outsiders...

Phil Rickman: Candlenight. A novel of horror from the acclaimed author of Curfew. Jove Books, ISBN: 0515117153 (September, 1995), 463 p., $5.99.