Murder and mayhem decked out in fantastic and erotic prose."" - The Times. ""A wild, poetic exhalation that sparkles and hoots and flies."" - The New Yorker. This mysterious fairy-tale, fragranced with twists of madness and lust, returns to print. Ray Bradbury called this 1985 novel, ""Absolutely first rate. Absolutely wonderful,"" when it was first published in 1985. Strange things are afoot in the fishing town of Rams Horn. Set close to the poisonous swamps at the mouth of the River Sheep, the town has been isolated from its neighbors for centuries. But mysterious events are unfolding... A seer who has waited for years for her drowned husband to reappear is hunted by demons, an African sailor arrives from the sea and takes refuge with a widow and her idiot daughter. Young boys plot sexual crimes and the doctor, unhinged by his desire for a woman he cannot have, turns to a medicine older than his own.