The Venemous Serpent. Brian Ball

The commemorative brass plate in the abandoned Derbyshire village church showed Sir Humphrey and Lady Sybil de Latours standing together. At the side of the man is a lion, and beside Sybil a fanged dog. <P> Strangely, the face of Sybil has been obliterated, despite the clear detail elsewhere. But young artist Sally Fenton takes a rubbing nonetheless, to sell to tourists from the shop that she and her paramour, Andrew Thomas, share. She hangs it in their bedroom, but at night the moonlight makes the static objects in the image begin to move–and writhe. Soon life in the village becomes a nightmare, and Sally and Andy are powerless to stop the evil from spreading. And then the ancient image comes alive! <P> A first-rate horror novel by a masterful writer.