- Hardcover: 560 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan (4 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0333908058
- ISBN-13: 978-0333908051
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.6 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 380,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Lamp of the Wicked
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Product Description
Review
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.
Product Description
The fifth mystery featuring Merrily Watkins. As Electricity 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 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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most original writer around at the moment,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lamp of the Wicked (Merrily Watkins Mysteries) (Hardcover)
I have read all of the Merrily Watkins books so far, but this one is my favourite. The story starts out almost as a straightforward murder/mystery/revenge plot, before rapidly turning into something much darker (as we have come to expect from Rickman). The links to real life events (I won't spoil it by telling you what they are) just add the perfect touch of 'could almost happen'.The action is well paced, with the main storyline backed up nicely by the subplots of Lol fighting his inner demons (again) and Jane struggling with her relationships with her mother, her boyfriend and life itself! Phil Rickman is difficult to place in a category. Some would class him as horror, psychological thriller, crime. This book has elements of all of these and I personally think Rickman deserves a category of his own. I am certainly glad I chanced upon 'Wine of Angels' in my local bookshop. This book is an outstanding read. If you haven't encountered Merrily Watkins before then I would recommend it, together with the other novels for a thoroughly absorbing read. Go and buy them now!
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An intriguing read,
By Soliloquies "Mandie" (Durham, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lamp of the Wicked (Merrily Watkins Mysteries) (Paperback)
"The Lamp of the Wicked" is another outstanding book in the Merrily Watkins series. Fot those who are new to the series, Merrily Watkins is the parish priest of Ledwardine and also the Deliverance Consultant for Hereford.Rickman gives all the characters very clear voices, and whilst he is dealing with the possibility of serial killings he manages to keep control of the plot. This book is probably the darkest of the series so far - it's complex story and the usual twists are well executed.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rickman's best yet,
This review is from: The Lamp of the Wicked (Merrily Watkins Mysteries) (Hardcover)
I'm a long-term Rickman fan and the arrival of a new Merrily Watkins mystery is a big event for me. Life gets suspended till I've finished the book though in with the excitement there's always a lurking fear that this time he won't deliver... But I reckon this is his most powerful novel yet.If you haven't read them yet, the books have many things to offer; great characters, dialogue-to-die-for, truly suspenseful plotting, an ironic wit, a real earthy sense of evil, superb sense of place, and always a resolution that satisfies on several levels while still leaving a a few questions to chew on. This latest novel, which takes a very famous crime case as its basis, is no exception. The pressure builds from the beginning all the way to the end with no let up and Rickman's mix of the infamous and the fictional gives a heightened sense of reality which leaves disbelief suspended from the ceiling. Masterly.
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