534 pages
English language
Published 1999 by Macmillan.
‘The red soil and the long, wooded hills… the twisted houses with old bones of blackened oak. And the apples. Why were apples so wholesome while the orchard was so oppressive?’
The new vicar had never wanted a picture-postcard parish. But appearances deceive. Ledwardine has a hidden history of abuse and murder, and Merrily Watkins might do well to heed the anonymous message that speaks of The Devil’s Minister and adds: let him lie. Be warned.
This is the novel that introduces Merrily Watkins, before the ongoing contemporary exorcism series begins with Midwinter of the Spirit.
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.
