Product Description

When offered the post once styled 'diocesan exorcist', the Revd Merrily Watkins - parish priest and single parent - cannot easily refuse. But the retiring exorcist, strongly objecting to women priests, not only refuses to help Merrily but ensures that she's soon exposed to the job at its most terrifying. And things get no easier. As an early winter slices through the old city of Hereford, a body is found in the River Wye, an ancient church is desecrated, and there are signs of dark ritual on a hill overlooking the city. Meanwhile, reports of psychic unrest in the Cathedral itself - where the famous shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe lies in fragments - reflect an undying evil lying close to the heart of the Church itself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141034 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

From the Author
just for the record...
The problem is, if you write novels involving anything supernatural, they file you under horror. Now, I'll accept 'eerie', I'll go with 'chilling', but horror... I don't think so. Nor fantasy; I hate fantasy. I write thrillers with real people and an element of the supernatural. That's it. Anyway, a couple of years ago, I decided to do one that nobody would ever slot into the dark space between Stephen King and Anne Rice. This was The Wine of Angels, a village mystery with murder, missing girls, incest, cider and a ghost. The book's central character was a female vicar, Merrily Watkins. I liked her and thought she deserved a series. So, Midwinter of the Spirit is the one in which Merrily becomes diocesan exorcist (or deliverance minister, as they term it these days} for Hereford. It's a little darker than Wine, but still essentially a crime-based thriller with a vein of supernatural - a 'spiritual procedural', if you like. Probably the first-ever. The third in the series, A Crown of Lights - the story of a modern witch-hunt on the Welsh border - is out in February 2001. It isn't horror either. But a little scary? Quite possibly.

About the Author

Phil Rickman was born in Lancashire. He has won awards for his TV and radio journalism, and his highly acclaimed earlier novels Candlenight, Crybbe, The Man in the Moss, December and The Chalice are also available from Pan Books in paperback. The Wine of Angels introduced the Revd Merrily Watkins, whose frightening baptism as a diocesan exorcist was charted in Midwinter of the Spirit, followed by A Crown of Lights, his previous novel. He is married and lives on the Welsh border.

Customer Reviews

Gripping, chilling and disturbing
This is my first Phil Rickman novel, but certainly won't be my last. I've always been a bit sceptical about this horror / mystic / occult genre, but this novel has changed my mind. What makes it such a compelling read is the credibility and development of the characters. Fantastic.

In the Bleak Mid-Winter...
I love this book. Whereas it doesn't exactly fit into the horror genre that it seems to be accredited with, it does have it's fair share of darkness and chills. The deep preparation that must have been involved in the writing of this book is obvious. Rickman has dealt with a slightly outdated theological mode and brought it alive (ressurrected it, as it were...)and made it relevant to our cynical modern spirituality. The mixture of victim and aggressor that lies within Merrily Watkins makes for a thoroughly charming character. The Bishop Mick Hunter is fairly typical as a protagonist, but as they say, stereotypes have to have a basis in truth. If your imagination can cope with having to work a bit harder than usual, then this book will be one of the most enjoyable you'll have read for some time.

Creepy
This is great. I love the characters as they are so real, like Merrily and Jane (although the bishop was a bit one-dimensional). The story was gripping although I had to concentrate as there were many facets to it. I also loved the way the Church is utilised, as I think it would be too scary without this comfort. In modern writing, Christianity is seen as narrow minded and paganism and New Age as open. I like that Rickman doesn't bother about this political correctness and, although he exposes faults within the church, he is not using his writing as a means to belittle Christianity. A really enjoyable and thrilling read.