Best-selling novelist Michael Phillips sets up a wonderful cast of characters in this witty mystery set in a fictionalized adaptation of Cullen House in northern Scotland. An eclectic group of aspiring authors--winners of a prestigious writing contest--is invited to a "writer's retreat" at the home of wealthy philanthropist Hugh Barrabault. He is a man who can make each of them famous overnight. They have everything to gain by the success of Barrabault's endeavor. When their host is found murdered by a writing quill of unusual design, late one stormy night when secluded in his mansion with none but his author-guests, it is obvious one of them possesses motives other than fame and fortune. It turns out that all eight have secrets they would prefer not be divulged. When alliances and tensions develop between the former strangers, accusations begin to fly. Someone must take charge. But what if that someone is the murderer?

In what he considers one of his most significant contributions to the legacy of George MacDonald, Michael Phillips here presents the complete panorama of George MacDonald’s four books of sermons in a single volume. Climaxing a forty-year career making the writings of MacDonald accessible and understandable to the full spectrum of the Christian public—resulting in the publication of over 80 new editions of MacDonald’s books—Phillips sets this volume apart from all others, not only as his most ambitious, but perhaps his most important. Presenting 20 of MacDonald’s most influential sermons in their full original format, accompanied by his own edited and more understandable copy, Phillips highlights each entry with a concise "Central Thesis," then adds an insightful introduction that illuminates the significant theological ground plowed by MacDonald’s pen that, Phillips believes, is destined in time to change how Christendom perceives the underpinings of its faith. What emerges is not only MacDonald’s wisdom, but Phillips’ own as he shrewdly and perceptively distills what he calls MacDonald’s "transformational theology of the Christian faith." Added to the 20 complete sermons are condensed versions of the remaining 29—each again with a helpful "Central Thesis"—enabling the reader to mine the ore without laboring through dozens of pages of dense and incomprehensibly obscure word-thickets. The result is a massive tome of over 300,000 words comprising all 49 of George MacDonald’s sermons. It is a volume of incomparable value in understanding the Scotsman’s theological foundations.