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When offered the post once styled 'diocesan exorcist', the reverend Merrily Watkins - parish priest and single parent - cannot easily refuse. But the retiring exorcist, strongly objecting to women priests, not only refuses to help Merrily but ensures that she's soon exposed to the job at its most terrifying. And things get no easier. Based on true
practices, this is the first spiritual-procedural thriller - the
electrifying story of a woman who must walk in dark places where
intangible malevolence thrives uncurbed by the forces of law and order. |
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I'm pretty happy, this book is full of promise, though a little slow to get going. I had a feeling that given the new tack Rickmon was about to take with the characters it would be that way. This isn't a bad thing, but it does take a while to get reoriented. Merrily is being courted to be become the new deliverance minister, though she suspects the appointment is more about church politics than her ability. Hence her hesitation about accepting. Meantime her teenage, daughter, Jane, has become a newager (remind me to vent on this subject sometime) and is scathing about the role of not only the church as a whole, but exorcism in particular. Believing it one more way that the CoE repress the spirituality of the world. With her new found friend Rowenna it can only be a matter of time before they drag out the white nighties and commune with trees. In the meantime, Lol (a decidedly annoying name for any net junkie, as every other sentence you imagine laughter), friend of Merrily and Jane, has a new vocation. To become a psychologist. His first assignment from mentor, Dick Lydon, is to look after the already nightie wearing Moon, who has returned to the land of her ancestors. That the Holy Hill is also where her father committed suicide when she was a kid is part of the reason for the shrink's concern. That she receives 'messages' and 'anoints' herself with the blood of dead birds is a whole other set of freakiness. There's going to be big bad evil real soon, you can
feel the tension building already. Merrily is going to be thrust
headlong into a big old battle for the souls of someone or other, and
Jane's involved somehow. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out,
and how all the concerns of the deliverance training school guy work
out. I love the style of writing, though I can't help but get tinged
with bouts of cynicism when various bodies start with the spiritual
stuff...but I'll cope.
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Merrily has been called to perform her first exorcism, at the bedside of a dying man in hospital. A decidedly unpleasant experience that leaves her feeling as though the man has violated her. To make maters worse, it would seem as though her predecessor is to blame for her being called. Dobbes, the current deliverance minister, objects to women in the job, and is determined not to go quietly. There's so much to this story that summaries are hard. Jane and Rowenna have ventured to a spiritualist fair, where Jane has been told she has powers that need guidance. Ummm. Lol is increasingly concerned about Moon's obsession with her past, and now she insists she's seeing her father's ghost he decides to mention it to Merrily. Who he has just rescued from the Bishop's less than pure intentions, after a particularly strange call out to the Cathedral. It seems that Dobbes has had a stroke while trying to commune with the bones of a dead saint. All spooky stuff, but totally absorbing. I'm having a lot of fun with this book, the story
twists and turns with the pieces of the puzzle always just out of reach.
I love it! |
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This is one hell of a book, no pun intended. I keep being surprised by it, and haven't felt one single time that the story was predictable in any way. So many topics are explored whilst at the same time telling what is one scary, and disturbing story about the dark forces of the world's attack on Christianity. Ok, where to begin, so much has happened since I last wrote. Moon, the loopy archaeologist who seemed to be at the center of the book initially...in a way she still is. She apparently committed suicide, in the same way her father did, not with a shotgun as we had been led to believe, but using an ancient sword handed down through generations of the family. Lol found her body lying in the bath in the barn she had taken up residence in. Now racked with guilt he realises that there is more to her death than meets the eye and suspects that it has something to do with the forces collecting around his friend Merrily. At the same time Cannon Dobbes suffers a stroke whilst in the Cathedral, apparently talking to the patron saint of the Cathedral Thomas Cantilupe. The site of many miracles, the tomb is undergoing restoration and the seemingly loopy former exorcist ha become obsessed with it. Merrily is forced to break into the room in order to save the seriously ill man. After her first exorcism Merrily became the focus of the dead man's attentions. His spirit lingering and clinging to her, tainting everything she came into contact with. Fully prepared to resigned her new position she traveled to a nursing home to perform one final banishment. During her work she meets one of the elderly residents, Athena White. A student of magic and ancient wisdom, the woman recognises the darkness around the priest she councils her on how to protect herself...using magic. Though initially both skeptical and frightened that her actions will offend God, Merrily finds the ritual works. Ok, so the bottom line is this...a whole bunch of things happen which lead Merrily and her exorcist teacher Huw to believe that there are real Satanists at work in Hereford who are using the current tentative position of the Cathedral to attack the very heart of Christianity. Mick Hunter, the new Bishop, seems to believe more in church politics than God and his appointment of a woman 'deliverance minister' is seen as a weakness. The ringleaders of the attack appear to be Jane's friend Rowenna, who has a predilection for bedding members of the clergy, and who also gives blow jobs to obnoxious youths for services rendered and Anna Purefoy, who herself has corrupted a priest, married him and turned him on to Satanism. The Purefoy's also own the barn which Moon 'killed herself' in, and their involvement there looks more suspicious by the minute. The center of their attack is an old ceremony, recently reestablished at the Cathedral, which makes one of the head choristers Bishop for a short time. The boy chosen is Rowenna's new boyfriend. I am loving this, even though my summery here probably makes no sense the story is so well written all the threads of the various stories weave perfectly together. Lol is heading to Dinor Hill (where he thinks it likely the Satanist will perform their dark rituals) whilst Jane and Merrily witness the Boy Bishop ceremony and wait for the 'squatter' (the dark spirit that Huw believes to be residing in the Cathedral) will make it's presence felt. The hope is that with the help of the saint the 'squatter' can be brought under control before it can be used for evil. Or at least that's the impression I get. I'm heading into the finale of this book eagerly, now planning to read the next in this series right away. If The Wine of Angels is anything to go by, the end will be both shocking and a little on the gory side. I can't wait to see what happens...and part of me is hoping that Mick Hunter is working for the dark side, as the idea of that creep in a position of piety really bugs me! |
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The ending was both strangely satisfying and disappointing all at the same time. Once it was clear that the Boy Bishop ceremony was the significant moment of evil flooding into the world the scene was set for high drama. However, it never quite lived up to it's promise. On the other hand, events at Dinor Hill were a tad over done. So here we have it, the breakdown according to Blithe. As the Boy Bishop ceremony begins the chosen chorister, James Lyden (who's father was Moon's shrink, proving once more that shrinks are basically a bad thing) is paraded up the aisle of the Cathedral. His mother suddenly has a terrible nose bleed, and Merrily can't help but see the significance behind the boy's mother spilling blood...some rite she believes. She is distracted, trying to clean up the mess, and so isn't present when James enters the saint's shrine, and instead of showing humility, spits on his tomb. Jane is the only witness. The ceremony complete, the lights in the Catherdral go out, as they are wont to do in horror movies. To cut a long story short (too late) the evil is unleashed, and Merrily is on...except as she goes into battle she is greeted by Dobbes. He does his thing, and then dies. Meanwhile, the Boy Bishop nips out the back way and goes to meet Rowenna for a little desecration in the crypt. Jane follows and is almost killed when she confronts them. Up on Dinor Hill, Lol bursts in on the Purefoy's, who have just finished performing their ritual. In a surreal Bond villan-esk confession scene, they tell him how they convinced Moon to commit suicide to give them power. Just when things are starting to look dangerous for Lol, Moon's brother ploughs into the barn, demolishing it and killing the Purefoy's but leaving Lol unhurt. Back at the Cathedral Merrily is confronted by the real evil in the church; Mike Hunter, bishop and unbeliever. The ending was good in a number of ways; it cleverly wrapped up a few curious threads that I had thought would be left dangling. I was pleased that no dark demon formed all slavering and roaring appeared at the crucial moment, but at the same time felt a tad cheated. The book wasn't predictable that far, so why I thought the ending would be any different I don't know. The only part that really felt wrong was that the 'Rowenna Issue' was never fully dealt with. Instead of her meeting her dark maker, or being consumed by the power of God, she just left the picture with no explanation. I can only surmise that Rowenna will be back in later books to wreak her revenge against Merrily and Jane. I
was initially apprehensive about the subject matter; wondering how Phil
Rickman could possibly give such an overused cliché of horror as the exorcist
a new twist. He managed it in grand style. Phil Rickman writes with such
elegance that he reinvents the genre, and at the same time has courage
to sacrifice the characters he has so lovingly created to the greater
good of story telling. Reading this author is such a pleasure, and his
inventiveness never ceases to amaze me. And so hoping to find out what
became of the lovely Rowenna, I will move right on to the next book in
this series; A Crown Of Lights. I've only given this book four stars and
not five because I still love The Wine Of Angels with a passion, and
think this falls a little short of it's brilliance. |
