The Macbeth prophecy

To the casual holidaymaker, Crowthorpe seemed a pretty Lakeland village, its stone circle just a prehistoric monument like any other. No outward sign proclaimed it the site of ancient rivalry, whose legacy of hatred lingered into the present day. Matthew and Philip Selby, however, though they thought themselves ordinary holidaymakers, proved not to be so. Two factors singled them out from the beginning: the fact that they were twins, and their lifelong phobia about crows. The village also reached out for Jason Quinn, a sophisticated TV journalist who gave no credence to the supernatural and was known for his scepticism. He too was drawn relentlessly into the smouldering whirlpool of suspicion and fear as the buried emotions of thousands of years finally erupted. Yet the terrifying outcome might, despite everything, have been averted, had not the gypsy girl at the fair made her fatal Macbeth prophecy.