To Dream of the Dead: A Merrily Watkins Mystery (Merrily Watkins Mysteries) - Softcover

Rickman, Phil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184724792X ISBN 13: 9781847247926

Publisher: Quercus Publishing, 2016

Synopsis

NOW A MAJOR ITV DRAMA

December in vicar and exorcist Merrily Watkins' village of Ledwardine, and the river is rising. The village 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.

About this title

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 author of nine other Merrily Watkins' Mysteries, introducing the Reverend in The Wine of Angels, and charting her career as the diocesan exorcist with Midwinter of the Spirit, A Crown of Lights, The Cure of Souls, The Lamp of the Wicked, The Prayer of the Night Shepherd, The Smile of a Ghost, The Remains of an Altar and The Fabric of Sin.

From AudioFile

Emma Powell is the ideal narrator for Rickman's unique series featuring parish priest Merrily Watkins. Powell delivers an authentic accent for the residents of rural Hereford, England, both the educated and those who remain close to the region's superstitions. The always-cool-and-composed Merrily and her passionate daughter, Jane, are fascinating counterpoints to the timely issues that make up these layered mysteries. In this one, as Christmas approaches and a flood threatens, Merrily must weigh right and wrong, and ancient and modern beliefs as she decides how to assist her beloved church and congregation. Powell also skillfully depicts the heavy weather and strongly flowing river that are so much a part of the story's atmosphere. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 184724792X
• ISBN 13: 9781847247926
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528