Phil Rickman Bibliography

The fourth spiritual-procedural mystery featuring the Rev. Merrily Watkins as exorcistElectricity pylons now mark the old Roman road from Gloucester to Monmouth. Midway along it is the unlovely village of Underhowle, confronting a new prosperity . but also home to a man the police have identified as the killer of several young women. But for the local exorcist, Rev. Merrily Watkins, this truth might never have emerged -- but is that the whole truth? For, as the police hunt for more bodies, Merrily is increasingly worried that the detective in charge might have become blinkered by ambition. Meanwhile, Merrily has more personal problems: like the anonymous phone calls. the candles and incense left burning in her church. not to mention the alleged angelic visitations on which many will heap scorn. It is her musician boyfriend Lol who follows an unexpected path into the mind of the confessed murderer, while Merrily herself must quell revulsion in scrubbing away the psychic stain left by a dead monster.

There are shades of the gruesome murders of young women by Fred and Rose West in Cromwell Street, Gloucester, in this fourth outing for Reverend Merrily Watkins, Welsh village vicar and Deliverance Consultant (formerly exorcist) after becoming involved in a dispute between an elderly plant hire operator who accuses a spivvy young rival of starting a fire in his yard in which his nephew dies. The young man is later identified as the killer of several young women. But has the whole truth been fully uncovered? Merrily receives anonymous phone calls; candles and incense are left burning in her church and there are alleged angelic visitations on which many will heap scorn. Rickman goes from strength to strength in this beguiling, highly satisfying mix of murder and the occult.

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Rickman, Phil - 'To Dream of the Dead'

TO DREAM OF THE DEAD is the latest instalment in this series set in Ledwardine, a fictional Herefordshire village in the Welsh borders featuring female vicar and local exorcist Merrily Watkins and her pagan teenage daughter Jane.

As the book opens in the run up to Christmas, the river is starting to burst its banks, and Ledwardine is in danger of flooding. Village tension is also mounting, as the excavation of historic standing stones is putting a spanner in the works of local bigwigs' plans to redevelop Coleman's meadow for executive housing. Bumptious TV architect Blore plus camera crew are in charge of the excavation, and Jane and the local council are shut out. In the meantime, a local politician is found dead in a particularly gruesome manner in a deserted Hereford monastery, with traces left on the body related to another historical find, the Dinedor serpent. As this local politician approved the building of a new road on the site of the serpent, the local environmentalist and pagan community come under suspicion. Merrily's old friend, DI Franny Bliss however suspects rather more prosaic motives are behind the murder, and despite his superior officer, "Ice Maiden" Annie Howe's disapproval, starts to cast around the political fraternity for further information. Despite herself, Merrily becomes involved in the investigation as the victim's widow is a friend of her colleague, diocese secretary Sophie, and because the police see her daughter Jane as a vital source of information regarding the pagan community under suspicion. Merrily also feels under professional pressure when she finds out that an aggressively atheist author in the mould of Richard Dawkins has moved into the area under a false name.

TO DREAM OF THE DEAD has a slightly different feel to earlier books in the series as the emphasis is more upon the police investigation than upon Merrily's unusual work as the local exorcist. But in other respects it is business as usual. Phil Rickman manages to neatly reconcile the various strands of plot to provide a satisfying, dramatic conclusion, and characterisation and dialogue are sharp and witty; the author provides a neat satire on village life in the "new Cotswolds" and the relationships between local inhabitants and the newcomers who attempt to gentrify the area. I look forward to further books in this series, but do hope that the next book has more of a focus on Merrily and the spiritual and potentially supernatural elements behind crime and traumatic events.

Laura Root, England
January 2009

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