From the bestselling author of The House of Crimson & Clover series comes The Cunning Man, a gothic horror short in the vein of MR James, set in the plague-stricken hinterlands of England. The Doctor delights in the decadent detail of his dastardly designs. He was not always The Doctor. The Doctor was once The Cunning Man. Indeed, he was this man for all his life and until only moments ago. He is still this man in the ways that matter, in the intrinsic black, smoking swirls where his soul should be. But to the world he is now The Doctor. Because The Doctor is the only one capable of accomplishing The Cunning Man's goals. The year is 1665, and the Great Pestilence laps at his doorstep. He knows what he must do.