Midwinter of the Spirit [Hardcover]

Having devoured "The Chalice" I then found "Midwinter of the Spirit" on the shelves, and I enjoyed this book so much that I've now purchased the whole back catalogue of this author's work on the strength of it, and I've not been disappointed with any of them.

"Midwinter of the Spirit" is the second in a series of books based around the character of Merrily Watkins, a divorced mother of a teenage daughter, who has become a priest and is trying to get her life together spiritually and practically. On the way along her path, she gets involved in a few adventures and mysteries. No, this isn't Father Brown or the Vicar of Dibley we are talking about here, Merrily is as real and as humanly flawed as any of us, and therein lies a great deal of her appeal.

Having survived her introduction (read the first Merrily book, "The Wine of Angels", recommended!) to life in a seemingly normal village that is actually seething with an undercurrent of mystery, murder, complex relationships and other peculiar happenings (just like real life), Merrily decides to take on the job of exorcist - as you do. This could have been a dicy theme to tackle because everyone has read the book or seen the film of The Exorcist, and it takes a brave man (or woman) to write another book on such a theme. Preconceptions could have killed this book stone dead in the water, so it says much for the skills of the writer - and the confidence and sanity of his publisher - that "Midwinter of the Spirit" survived to see the light of day.

Whereas in Blatty's book we are showered page after page with horror, gore and violation at its most shocking and brutal, here is a subtlety of evil that is far more convincing and, in the final analysis, far more disturbing than anything a common or garden horror-fiction author could throw at us. This book contains human dilemmas, human errors and human solutions, so while there is no doubt that the supernatural is involved here, not at any point does the book become tedious, predictable in its outcome or too obviously reliant on the usual "unexplained" elements to keep the flow going. Maybe because I'm a woman I sort of got under the skin of Merrily as I read, and her problems became my problems. How to deal with some thoroughly unpleasant characters, dead and dying; shades from the past reaching out to mingle with and direct events in the present; touches of black magic and flashes of firebright goodness; and finally the careful manipulation of the reader's own thoughts until you can't tell who the good guys are from the bad (yes, I was caught out). Plus a healthy helping of teenage angst and wisdom (daughter Jane is a terrific character and far more true to life than many fictional teenagers), human vulnerabilities and egoism kept me hooked from the first page to the final full stop. I found myself really caring about Merrily and her allies, and the outcome, and I am just glad that she has survived to feature in the next book, which I'm already eager to read. If women priests really are like Merrily, then the church has a bright future!

What I like particularly about Rickman is his style of writing - nothing pretentious here, or forced. His characters are rounded and believeable, his prose flows easily and contains much subtle humour - which is something a lot of thrillers are missing. Never forget the human element: even in tragedy there can often be found a spark of humour. The plots are not far fetched, and this is what I found most appealing about the books in general. I love authors like Stephen King, but after I've finished reading I tend to think, "God that was scary - but at least it's only a book." Somehow you can believe that everything that happens in Rickman's books could easily happen in real life - and maybe that's the trick. What I also like is that there are little links between many of the books - characters that turn up in one get a mention in another, so though the books are not exactly related in the obvious way there are references to characters and situations that serve to make the whole collection of Ricknan's works extremely authentic. You wouldn't be surprised to pop into your local and see the Rev. Merrily Watkins musing over a pint with cigarette in hand, or to meet any one of his musician characters next time you entered a studio.

These books are about real people and believeably real situations and I just hope that Rickman continues to write because it's about time we had another inventive and original British author regularly and reliably filling the shelves ...