The Smile of a Ghost
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Review
"Merrily Watkins, single mom and Anglican priest, faces more than one occult threat...Chilling...fast-paced...provocative...even skeptics of the paranormal will shudder with fear."
Andrew Taylor, Spectator Books of the Year.
'Rickman's crime series is one of the best around.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If I had known before I bought the first Merrily Watkins novel (The Wine of Angels) that Merrily is an exorcist, I probably would have saved my money. But I didn't know, and now I'm hooked.
The characters are fabulous - Merrily, the sometimes hapless vicar; Jane, the pagan daughter; Gomer, the archetypal local; Lol, the fragile folk-rock mystery. Any and all of these will fix your attention and concern, to say nothing of a wide array of secondary characters and ghosts. OK, the ghosts sound hard to take, but Rickman carefully constructs Merrily's vocation, making the line between spiritual work and work with spirits very faint indeed. The vicar's faith is remarkably practical and so are most of the problems she faces.
The plots grow out of the settings on the Welsh border, exquisitely detailed in all the books. In Smile of a Ghost, the town of Ludlow becomes another character, in some ways the principal victim. Of all the books, this one has the most subtly integrated element of the supernatural: you can take it or leave it.
If the exorcist plot makes you nervous, start with this book and see if your concerned affection for Merrily, Lol, Jane and others doesn't over-come your hesitation.
The characters are fabulous - Merrily, the sometimes hapless vicar; Jane, the pagan daughter; Gomer, the archetypal local; Lol, the fragile folk-rock mystery. Any and all of these will fix your attention and concern, to say nothing of a wide array of secondary characters and ghosts. OK, the ghosts sound hard to take, but Rickman carefully constructs Merrily's vocation, making the line between spiritual work and work with spirits very faint indeed. The vicar's faith is remarkably practical and so are most of the problems she faces.
The plots grow out of the settings on the Welsh border, exquisitely detailed in all the books. In Smile of a Ghost, the town of Ludlow becomes another character, in some ways the principal victim. Of all the books, this one has the most subtly integrated element of the supernatural: you can take it or leave it.
If the exorcist plot makes you nervous, start with this book and see if your concerned affection for Merrily, Lol, Jane and others doesn't over-come your hesitation.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In this the seventh of his Merrily Watkins novels, Phil Rickman once again proves that you really can't get too much of a good thing. While The Smile of a Ghost does not find the Rev. Merrily Watkins in such dire or dark supernatural peril she has contended with previously, the demons she must face are just as chilling -- the possible elimination of her very role as Deliverance Minister by modernizing forces in the Church as well as her own self-doubt. And this crisis couldn't have come at a worse time -- in the midst of a tragic trend of teen suicides, possibly influenced by a 12th century ghost and a very hauntingly real "ghost" of sorts from Merrily's Goth days of the more recent past.
In spite of this novel's thematic seriousness, Rickman manages to weave subtle strands of wit and humor throughout, and his astounding facility with character and dialogue only gets better with each book. Through his superb crafting of narrative perspective, the personalities of Rickman's characters' seem to hijack their way from chapter to chapter with an amazing fluidity that makes the book very hard to put down.
If you're a regular reader of Rickman's novels, this newest one will not disappoint. If you're new to the novels of Phil Rickman, you're in for a treat. Either way, The Smile of a Ghost will leave a reader smiling.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've read every one of Phil Rickman's / Will Kingdom's books and have found them utterly un-put-downable. I'd already started a Dan Brown when Mr Rickman's latest offering dropped through the letter box, but Dan was discarded in favour of Phil. As usual, there is the careful crafting of an intricate story, with a deceptively slow start. It's a case of drip, drip, drip, FLOOD! with this book. A lot happens very quickly in the last few chapters and it took a while to decipher all the connections. This was very good, but not quite Mr Rickman's best offering. It is still well worth buying & I've already recommended it to my friends. I'm disappointed that I've already finished the book and I look forward to the next offering.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
No disappointment
Another excellent episode in the Merrily Watkins series. I am trying to read these in sequence and had waited eagerly for this, book 7, to appear in Kindle format. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jabjar
Surprisingly good!
I only picked up this at the library as I had seen another of his books well reviewed. But as I began to read it my heart sunk.... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Wynne Kelly
Excellent as usual
I have been waiting to get my hands on a copy of this for at least a year. At last found one and worth the wait although I have read it out of sequence, I could still remember the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by G. M. Berry
Wow!
As someone who is a regular to Ludlow, this book really delivered (sorry no deliverence pun intended). As always the characters were very well drawn and developed during the book. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Anna Biggs
A well researched, ghost filled Ludlow travel book
I love the way Phil Rickman manages to fill ALL his novels with what seems like, a lifetime of research. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Caitlin Sagan
Ghosts in Ludlow
Ludlow in Shropshire is a really atmospheric town and Phil Rickman has captured this atmosphere in this enthralling story. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Damaskcat
minor glitch
Hello Amazon. I think your computer's buggered again.
You seem to have lost 16 reviews from this title,
seventeen from The Wine of Angels, and similar
numbers... Read more
You seem to have lost 16 reviews from this title,
seventeen from The Wine of Angels, and similar
numbers... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2009 by Sue de Nimes
Another solid read from Rickman...
I don't know about anyone else but when I'm reading about Merrily Watkins I can't help but imagine her as the Vicar of Dibbly (Dawn French). Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2009 by C. L. Crake
Feel free to roll your eyes
I came by this book by chance. Stood in a Ludlow bookshop, the cover looked vaguely like Ludlow itself. It was! Read more
Published on 8 July 2009 by Nicholas Casley
Mainstream Merrily
Phil Rickman continues to keep the supernatural element of the series on the back burner which funnily enough makes the ghost all the more real when it's glimpsed momentarily in... Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2007 by A. Watson
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