Phil Rickman - Free Library Land Online - War

The Remains of an Altar

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 22:06:30 +0300

In 1934, the dying composer Sir Edward Elgar feebly whistled to a friend the theme from his Cello Concerto and said, "If you're walking on the Malvern Hills and hear that, don't be frightened. It's only me." Seventy years later, Merrily Watkins parish priest and Deliverance Consultant to the Diocese of Hereford is called in to investigate an alleged paranormal dimension in a spate of road accidents in the Malvern village of Wychehill. There, Merrily discovers new tensions in Elgar's countryside. The proposed takeover of a local pub by a nightclub owner with a criminal reputation has become the battleground between the defenders of Olde Englande and the hard men of the drug worldwith extreme and sinister elements on both sides. And as the choral society prepares to stage an open-air performance of Elgar's Caractacus at a prehistoric hill fort, the deaths begin. Another spellbinding thriller in Phil Rickman's lauded occult mystery series.

Wine of Angels

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:06:26 +0300

Product Description

'Gappy old grin, eyes like grey holes...these very branches. Look up, Janey...' It looks like a paradise parish: cobbled streets, black and white timber -framed houses. But, even before she moves in, Merrily Watkins, the new woman priest, has witnessed an ugly death. Soon she'll be involved in a bitter dispute over a play about a 17th century vicar accused of witchcraft...a story which certain old families would rather remained obscure. Welcome to Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrecy. And, as Merrily and her teenage daughter, Jane, discover, a village where horrific murder is a tradition spanning centuries.

About the Author

Phil Rickman lives on the Welsh border where he writes and presents the book programme Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales. He is the hugely popular author of The Bones of Avalon and the Merrily Watkins Mysteries.

The Fever of the World

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 15:21:48 +0200

'Brilliantly eerie' PETER JAMES
'Engrossing and beautifully dark . . . a cracking good read' JO BRAND
'A most original sleuth' THE TIMES
Welcome to the River Wye: a place of poetry, historic obsession... and occult murder.
The curious death of an estate agent is being investigated by detective David Vaynor who, before joining the police, studied the famous 18th century poet William Wordsworth. As Vaynor is discovering, the dark paganism that changed Wordsworth's life still lingers on the banks of the River Wye today - and there are some killings even the police can't approach...
Enter Merrily Watkins, parish priest, single mum, and diocesan exorcist for Hereford. Called away from her local hauntings, Merrily finds herself confronting the riverside ghosts who, as Wordsworth puts it, 'promote ill purposes and flatter foul desires'. In the ancient heart of the Wye Valley, a buried grudge is about to come to light.
*Book...

Crybbe

Sun, 18 Apr 1993 22:06:31 +0300

When record tycoon Max Goff travels to the village of Crybbe and decides to replace ancient stones that had fallen over, he unleashes a centuries-old evil.

Mean Spirit

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:26:20 +0200

Who is stalking Seffi Callard, the world’s most fashionable celebrity medium, now a paranoid recluse at her father’s home in the Costwolds? Her old mentor, Marcus Bacton, editor of an ailing journal of the paranormal, sends his assistant, Grayle Underhill to find out - unaware that he’s thrusting them both into a nightmare… and the attentions of a vicious career-criminal for whom getting rich is less important than never getting dead. [add quotes here]Who is stalking Seffi Callard, the world’s most fashionable celebrity medium, now a paranoid recluse at her father’s home in the Costwolds? Her old mentor, Marcus Bacton, editor of an ailing journal of the paranormal, sends his assistant, Grayle Underhill to find out - unaware that he’s thrusting them both into a nightmare… and the attentions of a vicious career-criminal for whom getting rich is less important than never getting dead. [add quotes here]Who is stalking Seffi Callard, the world’s most fashionable celebrity medium, now a paranoid recluse at her father’s home in the Costwolds? Her old mentor, Marcus Bacton, editor of an ailing journal of the paranormal, sends his assistant, Grayle Underhill to find out - unaware that he’s thrusting them both into a nightmare… and the attentions of a vicious career-criminal for whom getting rich is less important than never getting dead. [add quotes here]Who is stalking Seffi Callard, the world’s most fashionable celebrity medium, now a paranoid recluse at her father’s home in the Costwolds? Her old mentor, Marcus Bacton, editor of an ailing journal of the paranormal, sends his assistant, Grayle Underhill to find out - unaware that he’s thrusting them both into a nightmare… and the attentions of a vicious career-criminal for whom getting rich is less important than never getting dead. [add quotes here

To Dream of the Dead

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:06:33 +0300

The village of Ledwardine has never been flooded in living memory, but as the river continues to rise with December rains, within days it will be an island. Electricity has been cut and the church is serving as a temporary mortuary for two people who drowned. Only one man feels safe: an aggressively atheist author who has been moved—for his own safety—into a secluded house just outside the village. Meanwhile, archaeologists—assisted by Merrily Watkins’s teenage daughter, Jane—are at work unearthing an ancient row of standing stones that some people would prefer stay buried. The atheist’s temporary home is close to the site, and his young wife is becoming conspicuously agitated. Is it the fear of discovery? With the flood water washing up Church Lane towards the vicarage and the shop running out of cigarettes, it looks to be a cold and complex Christmas for Merrily Watkins.

From Publishers Weekly

Past and present collide with fatal results in British author Rickman's unsettling 10th mystery to feature parish priest Merrily Watkins (after 2008's The Fabric of Sin). A few days before Christmas, a body with a mutilated face turns up in a ruined monastery in the Herefordshire village of Ledwardine near the Welsh border. Also casting a pall over the holiday season are the threat of a flood and a contentious debate at a town meeting about whether to build a highway through a beloved meadow. Meanwhile, the unearthing of the ancient Dinedor Serpent, a prehistoric monument, leads Merrily's aspiring archeologist daughter, Jane, into dangerous territory. A newcomer to the village, an outspoken atheist despised by fundamentalists, adds fuel to a volatile mix. Amid the mayhem, Rickman skillfully weaves together the assorted subplots. Credible characters—some down-to-earth, others lunatic—and absorbing archeological lore are a plus. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Credible characters . . . and absorbing archeological lore are a plus." —Publishers Weekly

"Merrily is a most original sleuth and an interesting, sparky woman of emotional and spiritual depth. Rickman is an excellent writer, terrific on atmosphere . . . The best so far." —The Times

The Echo of Crows

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 12:36:31 +0200

The Secrets of Pain

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:06:29 +0300

Product Description

INTRODUCING MERRILY Merrily Watkins, parish priest, single mother, exorcist, works for the Diocese of Hereford in a remote village on the border of England and Wales. Like many men and women doing an essentially medieval job in an increasingly secular society, she's never certain how much she can permit herself to believe. It doesn't help that she sometimes has to work with psychiatrists and the police. Or that her employer, the Church of England, is far from free of prejudice, sexism, greed and corruption. Or that Merrily's teenage daughter is more interested in paganism than the priesthood. No wonder she smokes. No wonder she occasionally lapses into language hard to find in the Bible. THE SECRETS OF PAIN The elite warriors of the Hereford-based SAS know all about pain and the enduring of it. Syd Spicer, ex-SAS trooper, has found himself back the Regiment - this time as its chaplain, responsible for the spiritual welfare of the hardest men in or out of uniform. Faced with a case which would normally be passed discreetly to Hereford diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins, Spicer is forced, for security reasons, to try and handle it himself...and is coming close to a breakdown. Meanwhile, the scattered communities along the Welsh border have their own crisis. With recession biting deep, urban crime has spilled into the countryside and old barbaric evils are revived. When a wealthy landowner is hacked to death in his own farmyard, the senior investigating officer, DI Frannie Bliss is caught in the backlash, his private life in danger of exposure. With the framework of her own world beginning to crack, Merrily Watkins is persuaded to venture into areas where neither a priest nor a woman is welcome...to unearth secrets linked with the border's pagan past. Secrets which she knows can never be disclosed.

About the Author

Midwinter of the Spirit

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:42:37 +0200

December

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:42:40 +0200

Friends of the Dusk

Thu, 26 Nov 2015 09:42:36 +0200

When Autumn storms blast Hereford, centuries-old human bones are found amongst the roots of a tree blown down on the city's Castle Green. But why have they been stolen?

At the nearby Cathedral, another storm is building around a new, modernising bishop who believes that if the Church is to survive it must phase out irrelevant archaic practices. Not good news for Merrily Watkins, consultant on the paranormal or, as it used to be known, diocesan exorcist. Especially as she's now presented with the job at its most medieval.

In the moody countryside on the edge of Wales, a rambling 12th-century house is thought to be haunted. Although its new owners don't believe in ghosts, they do believe in spiritual darkness and the need for exorcism. But their approach to Merrily is oblique and guarded. No-one can be told - least of all, the new bishop.

Merrily's discovery of the house's links with the medieval legend of a man who resisted mortality threatens to expose the hidden history of a more modern cult and its trail of insidious abuse. A trail that may not be closed.

To Dream of the Dead (MW10)

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:42:39 +0200

From Publishers Weekly

Review

"Credible characters . . . and absorbing archeological lore are a plus." —Publishers Weekly"Merrily is a most original sleuth and an interesting, sparky woman of emotional and spiritual depth. Rickman is an excellent writer, terrific on atmosphere . . . The best so far." —The Times

The Prayer of the Night Shepherd (MW6)

Fri, 26 Nov 2004 09:42:43 +0200

There were certain phrases you could feel, like fingers up your spine. Hattie Chancery's room. The possessive. Present tense. Oh God... A crumbling hotel on the border of England and Wales. A suggestion of inherited evil, a strange love affair... and the long-disputed origins of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. Fascinating for young Jane Watkins, flushed by the freedom of her first weekend job. But the sinister side becomes increasingly apparent to her mother, Merrily, diocesan exorcist for Hereford. Then come memories of a child-killer, blood in the fresh snow...

From Publishers Weekly

When unemployed TV producer Ben Foley discovers that running murder-mystery weekends at Stanner Hall, an old Herefordshire mansion turned hotel he’s purchased, isn’t as profitable as he anticipated, he determines to prove his theory that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had in mind a tale from the Welsh border region, not Devon, for the background to The Hound of the Baskervilles. In British author Rickman’s chilling fifth entry in his occult crime series (The Lamp of the Wicked, etc.) featuring Merrily Watkins, the single mom, Anglican priest and exorcist gets involved in sinister doings rooted in actual legend, as the author explains in his afterword. Merrily’s independent 17-year-old daughter, Jane, takes a job with the hotel and enthusiastically supports Foley’s plans, until the local legend of a black dog that foreshadows death becomes all too real. A pre-Christmas snowstorm provides a shivering backdrop to events at Stanner Hall that lead Merrily, boyfriend Lol Robinson and Jane into a night none of them will forget. Human greed and evil, plus the healing properties of faith, combine to create a fascinating and fast-paced read. Sherlock Holmes fans, especially members of the Baker Street Irregulars, will be intrigued by an organization called "The Baker Street League."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“A fine mixture of murder and the occult.” -- Library Journal
“Chilling… fast–paced… provocative… even skeptics of the paranormal will shudder with fear.” -- Publishers Weekly for The Cure of Souls
“Human greed and evil, plus the healing properties of faith, combine to create a fascinating and fast-paced read.” -- Publishers Weekly Review Annex
“Rickman, a thinking reader's Elizabeth George, continues his traversal of Welsh superstitions, Church of England conundrums, and true-crime touchstones.” -- Kirkus Review

A Crown of Lights

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:42:45 +0200

When a redundant church is bought by a young pagan couple, the local fundamentalist minister reacts with fury. In an isolated community on the Welsh border, a modern witch hunt begins. Diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins is expected to keep the lid on the cauldron... but what she finds out will seriously test her beliefs.