A mysterious manuscript reveals a stunning, centuries-old mystery . . . The Church . . . The Inquisition . . . Witchcraft . . . Martin, a Dominican friar and inquisitor, is summoned by Werner of Finkelstein to conduct the trail of a young woman accused of witchcraft during the time of the Great Plague. The Second Death is Martin's story--his confession--written after he sequesters himself in a monastery, having taken a vow of silence. Now, six centuries later, in the pages of the Dummstein Manuscript, his silence is shattered.