Characters

BILINDA (BILLIE) BAKER Billie is an optimistic, positive, and slightly naïve young woman. She really believes that she has been called to do good, but such has been her single-minded pursuit of this position since childhood, that she has never stopped to question whether she might have made the right decision. There is also the question of all the bad things she “accidentally” did while doing good. After a brief spell as a Church of England curate, she joined the Church of Satan.

MARGARET (MAGGIE) WARREN As a trainee priestess in the Church Of Satan, Maggie lived a wild sybaritic lifestyle: leather jackets, riding a motorbike, copious eyeliner – everything. Despite her commitment to chaos and evil, she is generous, acerbic and funny. Maggie has a history of environmental activism, aggressive placard-making and chaining herself to railings at the drop of a hat – but that’s all behind her now? She has recently renounced her faith and is now in the “care” of Reverend Penrose and Mrs Clovis.

REVEREND DAVID PENROSE The Reverend Penrose has held the position in Tredregyn for 25 years, the “front line of defense” against the onward march of evil. A veteran of hundreds of battles against various representatives of evil, his personal mission has long diverged from that of the church, who could not really replace him even though they might want to. Taciturn and hard-bitten, if he has a soft centre, no one has seen it for a long time. Few curates manage to stay the course with Penrose.

MRS MARY CLOVIS Mrs Clovis is the rectory housekeeper. She has a strong sense of duty to the church and fusses around Reverend Penrose. She has a lot of secrets, an understanding of cudgels, and somewhere in her past, a Mr Clovis.

MAGUS TOM PENDENNIS As Magus of the local Church Of Satan, Tom is responsible for coordinating the dark one’s mission in West Cornwall. His fondness for bureaucracy and the expansion of the mission is at odds with Satanism’s key tenet, “do what thou willst”. Tom is probably a sociopath.

WARLOCK BRIAN FITZPATRICK Brian, who spent 20 years on the road with various death metal bands, is a nutcase. He’s almost too chaotic for Satanism. Brian has a lot of problems – some real, some imaginary. He has definitely broken his brain. But for all that, he is a gentler soul than he lets on.