The sin eaters

the long version

"'When vagabonds descend on Sarah's village, Sarah clashes with their leader, the cruel Sam Ridley, who had abused a sin-eater, a man down on his luck or short of wits, paid to symbolically assume the transgressions of the community's most recent dead. Her retribution sets Ridley on her trail. Mary, a refugee from an unhappy marriage, soon joins Sarah and Bill, another sin-eater that Ridley has targeted, on their travels. While the ultimate showdown with Ridley and its resolution will surprise few readers, the author convincingly presents the main characters' inner lives in a manner that calls to mind Iain Pears's classic 'An Instance of the Fingerposts'."--Publisher's Weekly.