The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is set in early eighteenth-century Scotland and is a brilliant psychological study of religious fanaticism and the power of evil. The story traces Robert Wringhim's gradual decline into despair and madness, as his doubts about the righteousness of his cause are counteracted by what appears to be the Devil himself, who increasingly dominates his life.

Finally, Robert loses control over his own identity and starts committing murders. The novel is located in a historically definable Scotland with accurately observed settings, and simultaneously implies a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession.

Many of the events of the novel are narrated twice; first by the 'editor', who gives his account of the facts as he understands them to be, and then in the words of the 'sinner' himself. Considered by turns part-gothic novel, part-psychological mystery, it can be thought of as an early example of modern crime fiction in which the story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of its criminal anti-hero.

James Hogg (1770-1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist, and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man, he worked as a shepherd and farmhand and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorized biography.

Christopher and Cathy have made a loving home for their handsome and talented teenager Jory, their imaginative nine-year-old Bart, and a sweet baby daughter. Then an elderly woman and her strange butler move in next door. The Old Woman in Black watches from her window, lures lonely Bart inside with cookies and ice cream, and asks him to call her “grandmother.”

Slowly Bart transforms, each visit pushing him closer to the edge of madness and violence, while his anguished parents can only watch. For Cathy and Chris, the horrors of the past have come home…and everything they love may soon be torn from them.