Product Description

December, and the river is rising. The village of Ledwardine has never been flooded in living memory. Within days it will be an island. There's no electricity. The church is serving as a temporary mortuary for two people who drowned. Only one man feels safer. An aggressively-atheist author has been moved, for his own safety, Rushdie-style, into a secluded house just outside the village. Fundamentalist Christians have hated him for years. Now he's offended the Muslims. Bad move. Meanwhile, archaeologists, assisted by Merrily's teenage daughter, Jane, are at work in Coleman's Meadow, unearthing an ancient row of standing stones which some people would rather 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 - or the kind of fear that she, of all people, could never disclose? One thing is clear: the last person who's going to be welcome in that house is an exorcist. With the flood water washing up Church Lane towards the vicarage and the shop running out of cigarettes it looks like a cold and complex Christmas for Merrily Watkins in an ancient community forced to untangle its own history against the swirling uncertainty of the future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8454 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
'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

'A first class thriller with a difference' --Guardian

'Nail-biting, yet thoughtful and complex. What T.S. Eliot did for Canterbury Cathedral, Rickman does for Hereford' --Jane Jakeman, Shotsmag

From the Inside Flap
The clouds had closed down the moon, and the village lights shone brighter as if in a kind of panic...
Late December and the river is rising. The Herefordshire village of Ledwardine has not been flooded in living memory; prosperous incomers and weekenders, lured by dreams of woodsmoke and mulled wine, have been assured it will never happen. But in these days of climate change nothing is certain.
Merrily Watkins, parish priest and diocesan exorcist, has learned that one of the incomers, living incognito in a barn conversion, is an author whose aggressive, evangelical atheism has made him a figure of hate for religious fundamentalists. The writer's wife is becoming conspicuously agitated - is it the fear of discovery of the kind of fear that she, of all people, could never disclose?
Meanwhile, another kind of religious conflict flares, as the Welsh border county digs up its pagan past. Only days before Christmas, police in the city of Hereford make a gruesome discovery, linked to the unearthing of the Dinedor Serpent, a unique prehistoric ritual monument threatened by a new road. In Ledwardine itself, a team led by a controversial TV archaeologist is uncovering the buried Bronze Age stones of Coleman's Meadow - an exciting time for Merrily's teenage daughter, Jane, but the last thing some people want is for these stones to stand again.
Overnight, the village is isolated in the floods, cut off with a killer inside - a new kind of killer for a cold new age. As the waters rise, shocking savagery paralyses an ancient community untangling its own history against the swirling uncertainty of the future.

From the Back Cover
`In the old days, the bells would've been rung - a warning toll to freeze everybody into stillness and dread...'
A rainy night in the cathedral city of Hereford. A grisly murder is linked by DI Francis Bliss with the campaign to preserve an ancient ritual site. And then Bliss is sidelined by his boss. What's going on?
In the village of Ledwardine, Merrily Watkins stands between an extreme fundamentalist Christian and an atheist writer known as The Devil's Spin Doctor.
Tensions are rising... and so is the river. Soon Ledwardine will be isolated by floods, cut off with a killer inside - a new kind of killer for a cold new age.

Customer Reviews

Sitting in judgement
We've come to expect certain things from Phil Rickman's books. His ear for dialogue is accurate and evocative, whether he's creating the voice of a 70 year old labourer or a wide-eyed teenager. His sense of place is rich and enveloping. The sense of mounting threat is always subtly but deeply unsettling.

Where I don't think he gets enough credit is for the deft manner in which he and Merrily navigate the variety of conflicting attitudes which give the stories their friction and impetus. This is particularly the case in terms of religion versus the secular. Whilst you can infer, for example, where the authour's sympathies lie as 'ruralism' faces down the implacable march of development, he admirablly refuses to sit in judgement over those holding religous and spiritual beliefs, save to be wary of extremism in whatever form this should take. Wary though, and not condemnatory: even the two characters in this book with the most diametrically-opposed views are complex, rounded people who may be misrepresented and misunderstood. The dangers of 'demonisation' and failing to fully understand the complexity of the human condition - here is where we can fail.

So, Phil Rickman is, to my mind, master of the grey area, and reminds us that people, and the shadows they cast, are not painted in black and white. More to the point though....it's another darned good story. I suggest you read it on a particularly rainy day...

Friends Re--united!
Which is how this novel strikes me. We have all 'grown' with the characters themselves...........Merrily, Jane, Lol, Eirion and of course Gomer and Frannie Bliss. Following on from this comment then the book starts at a rip roaring pace with a gruesome murder.....is this linked to the Dinedor Serpent and their followers or is something more sinister afoot. The novel is set just before Xmas and the river is just about to burst its banks which will in time, leave Ledwardine cut off and with a murderer at loose.

A hidden agenda from a bent Council is putting the Colemans Meadow project in jeopardy and it is not until Frannie Bliss recently taken off the murder case, finds out something even more horrible. Can he race against time and the weather to save the people he has grown to like?

An absolutely gripping novel so much so that I read it in one sitting.
Highly recommnded for its suspense, indictments on today's society and also how, when under pressure people will pull together.

I can hardly wait for the author to write his next novel!

Under the surface
It's nearly Christmas when a severed head is found in the middle of Hereford. Frannie Bliss - maverick policeman is intrigued to discover that the head belonged to a well known County Councillor. Unfortunately, much to his chagrin - he is taken off the case and replaced by Annie Howe - the Ice Maiden. Merrily Watkins, parish priest and part time exorcist discovers there is a headline making atheist in the village of Ledwardine and is inttrigued that he's living incognito next door to the archaeological dig at Coleman's Meadow - a possible pagan spiritual site. Merrily's daughter Jane is angling to meet famous archaeologist Bill Bloor who is masterminding the dig at Coleman's Meadow to see if there are standing stones buried there. The dig is controversial as a prestigious housing development depends on the outcome and there are many vested interests. Stirred into this incendiary mixture is rabid Christian fundamentalist Shirley West, the village postmistress.
The action of this taut past paced thriller takes place in the few days leading up to Christmas and culminates in a shocking climax on Christmas Eve. Encompassing local government corruption, ecological issues, the tension between past and present and murder, the book keeps you guessing until the very end. All the well loved series characters are here - Lol Robinson - whose fame is increasing, Gomer Parry - still working in spite of his age, the village of Ledwardine itself - now threatened with flooding because of unrelenting rain and Lucy Devenish who may or may not be still overseeing things from the other side. Even though there is less of Merrily's role as exorcist in this book, I still found it as enthralling as ever and I'm sure it will be a hit with Merrily's many fans.