A Crown Of Lights

The Reverend Merrily Watkins confronted with a steaming brew that teeters on the edge of serious violence. A cracking read.

Tribune

'A highly sophisticated crime novel. Its complex narrative grips like a clamp. Rickman makes us care about his characters… is brilliant at dialogue.'

Andrew Taylor, Crimetime

'Supernatural events subtly introduced… paragraphs like lightning flashes. This is a Roget's Theasaurus book - has you ransacking the English language for adequate words of praise. "Faultless" springs to mind…'

John Whitbourn, SFX

An utterly convincing and memorable tale. Although you might not find the portrayal of fanatics on either side of the spiritual divide entirely appealing, you'll have difficulty denying they exist. This is the sort of book you live as well as read.

Pagan Dawn

In the third Merrily Watkins spiritual-procedural, M's loyalty to the Church of England is severely tested when she discovers worrying extremism on both sides of the Christian/pagan divide.

A nice young Wiccan couple, Betty and Robin Thorogood have bought a farmhouse in Radnorshire. A ruined church is part of the package. The church seems to have been built on an ancient pagan ritual site, and Robin thinks it would be a cool idea to reconsecrate it in the names of the old gods.

But the former parish church of Old Hindwell is one of five in the area dedicated to St Michael, warrior against dragons - a fact which has a profound significance for the fundamentalist local minister, the Rev. Nicholas Ellis. When the situation turns ugly, Merrily Watkins, diocesan deliverance consultant, is appointed by the Bishop of Hereford to try and keep the lid on the cauldron. At the same time, Merrily is reluctantly involved with the case of a country solicitor who is unwilling to part with his dead wife… finds herself appearing on late-night trash TV to represent the Church against militant pagans…and slowly learns the truth about the foundations of spirituality on the Welsh/English border.

There's also a murderer, of course… perhaps more than one. And a lot of unpleasant secrets. This is a murder mystery, with as much supernatural content as you are prepared to accept. It involves M's teenage daughter, Jane, and the irrepressible Gomer Parry…The five St Michael churches actually exist in Radnor Forest, as does the huge Neolithic ritual site and the exorcism charm at Cascob, and many aspects of the plot are based on fact. It's a very mysterious area, Radnor Forest…