Paperback, 560 pages
English language
Published Jan. 1, 1999 by Macmillan U.K..
A paradise parish of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses, and a huge, haunted vicarage were not what the Revd Merrily Watkins ever had in mind. Nor had she wanted to walk into a local dispute over a play about a curious 17th century cleric accused of witchcraft...a story that certain old-established families would rather remained in obscurity. But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets. And also - as Merrily and her teenage daughter, Jane, discover - a village where horrific murder is a tradition spanning centuries.
I found this book very hard to classify - mystery? Horror? Urban (rural?) fantasy? But at any rate this is a very satisfying mystery story with some supernatural elements that don't get in the way of trying to solve it as a reader, excellent, complex characters (one of whom gets killed off n a completely unexpected twist) in a brilliantly evoked, claustrophobic village setting.
