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In high summer, darkness descends on Elgar's England.
Called in to investigate the suggested paranormal origins of a series of road accidents in the Malvern Hills, Merrily Watkins stumbles into a barbed tangle of alienation, murder... and a mystical obsession with the ancient music in the landscape.
'The Malvern Hills will never look the same to me... Phil Rickman has done it again, thank God!'
Prof. Bernard Knight, Tangled Web.
'Strong sense of place. This is no rural paradise but a setting for an uneasy mix of embittered farmers, escapees from the city and a local pub with a reputation for drug-dealing. It's probably his best book.'
Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'Rickman serves up a complicated plot but holds it together with aplomb. Good solid entertainment... with a certain English charm.'
Simon Humphreys, Mail on Sunday
'Fascinating...rich in history...paranormal possiblities...a real page turner.'
Bridget Bolton, Reviewing the Evidence.dom
'Quirky. Altogether more amusing (than the latest Lynda La Plante) You may like to ponder the fact that in Britain more people believe in ghosts than in God.'
Carla McKay, Daily Mail
'Clever depiction of the complexities of English provincial life.'
Jessica Mann, The Literary Review
'Rickman's complex, supernatural, yet socially realistic plots are as engrossing as his deep exploration of the romantic, mysterious border country between England and Wales.'
Iain Finlayson, Saga Magazine
'I didn't simply savour the story... I was excited about it.'
Mab, Witchgrove
'I like (Merrily) because she's got vices - she likes a smoke, she swears when she gets upset... a very rounded character... not easily fooled; she has a gentle manner, but she's nobody's pushover.'
Barbara Nadel (on her favourite detective character)
Open Book, BBC Radio 4
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