The Funeral Owl

A rare local sighting of a Boreal Owl heralds a week of death and destruction for journalist Philip Dryden

When a reader contacts local newspaper The Crow to report a rare sighting of the Boreal or so-called ''Funeral'' owl, the paper''s editor Philip Dryden has a sense of foreboding. For the Funeral Owl is said to be an omen of death.

It''s already proving to be one of the most eventful weeks in The Crow''s history. The body of a Chinese man has been discovered hanging from a cross in a churchyard in Brimstone Hill in the West Fens. The inquest into the deaths of two tramps found in a flooded ditch has unearthed some shocking findings. A series of metal thefts is plaguing the area. And PC Stokely Powell has requested Dryden''s help in solving a ten-year-old cold case: a series of violent art thefts culminating in a horrifying murder.

As Dryden investigates, he uncovers some curious links between the seemingly unrelated cases: it would appear the sighting of the Funeral Owl is proving prophetic in more ways than one.