Customer Reviews

Mean Spirit

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For fans of Phil Rickman--or, indeed, of any other British/Welsh mystery with overtones of horror and suspense--this is your book. Kingdom is a talented author, sporting a style that puts you in touch with the characters immediately. As Rickman does, Kingdom makes you want to visit the Welsh border tomorrow. Read his other book if you haven't already--before you read this one. I look forward to finding out more in the lives of Grayle, Cindy, Marcus and Bobby. Bravo.

Persephone Callard is a world reknowned psychic medium, but her skills did not warn her to avoid becoming entangled with sadistic criminal Gary Seward. Now she's in hiding, and is being haunted herself by the evil manifestation of Seward's most vicious "enforcer", who himself was brutally murdered. The desperate Persephone contacts her old mentor, but since he's down with the flu, he sends his assistant, journalist Grayle Underhill, to help. No sooner does Grayle set out, than the nightmare begins.

Will Kingdom is a pen name of the author better known, mainly in the U.K., as Phil Rickman. Rickman deserves a much wider American readership, because he sure knows how to write captivating, credible, paranormal novels. His Merrilee Watkins series, about a female Anglican priest who's trained in exorcism, is set along the evocative England/Wales border, as is Mean Spirit. It's difficult to decide whether Rickman's/Kingdom's strength lies in plotting or characterization, as both of those factors are always so strong. A cross-dressing TV celeb, a young cop who recently died and came back again, the publisher of a new age magazine, and an American writer can hardly be expected to meld into a crime busting team, but that's exactly what they do, by hook or by crook. The suspense ratchets up, chapter by chapter, and the final scenes in a Victorian castle's creepy cellars are positively riveting. If you're looking for quality paranormal/crime novels, you can't do better.

Phil Rickman writing as Will Kingdom uses the same Welsh border background as he does in his Merrily Watkins mysteries, but his hero is a policeman rather than a parish priest. "Mean Spirit" is a sequel to The Cold Calling and has most of the same characters as the first book--at least on the side of the righteous. Read "The Cold Calling" first if you want to make any sense out of the relationships between the police detective who was brought back from the dead, the cross-dressing shaman, and the ditzy New Age American newspaper reporter.

In "Mean Spirit," police detective Bobby Maiden is still on the trail of his bent supervisor, who has retired from the police force and is now heading up a private security force called Forcefield (think Blackwater).

Marcus Bacon, editor of a psychic newsletter, "The Phenomenologist" is now assisted by American reporter, Grayle Underhill, who has `modernized' his newsletter and increased its circulation. Grayle spends most of this novel saying the wrong thing, getting bad vibes about a world-famous medium, and (toward the latter stages) throwing up. She seems to be the author's version of `Innocents Abroad' and says `um' way too many times (do Americans really talk that way?)

My favorite character from "The Cold Calling," cross-dressing ventriloquist, Cindy Mars-Lewis has found a cushy TV job on a popular British lotto show. Unfortunately, newly rich lotto winners keep dying horribly, and the sleazy tabloids (Britain has many of them) start putting it about that Cindy has cursed them.

Although "Mean Spirit" doesn't reach quite the same pitch of paranormal intensity that its predecessor did, it does have more than its share of sadistic, devious villains, one of whom escapes during the chaotic supernatural finale. So I'm definitely hoping for a sequel.

This is a great follow-up to The Cold Calling, Kingdom's first book (Kingdom being the non de plume of successful crime/mystery writer Phil Rickman).

Some favourite faces return - Bobby Maiden, Grayle Underhill, Marcus Bacton and Cindy Mars-Lewis (the entertaining cross-dressing shaman) - to deal with the case of a troubled psychic, Persephone "Seffi" Callard, who is being plagued by a spiritual hitchhiker.

There are plenty of nail-biting moments, but you don't want the story to end (knowing it is the only other Kingdom book). When it does, you're left feeling that this unusual band of friends have many more stories to tell.

This is another great addition to the Rickman shelf in my household.

I enjoyed this book by Will Kingdom. Mean Spirit has all of the elements of a good spooky tale. Persephone Callard is a famous medium in hiding. There is a serious mystery as to why the medium is running away and Grayle Underhill, a journalist, finds her. Bobby Maiden is a cop who's had a near death experience and he's thrown into the mix of murder and mystery as is Marcus Bacton, Grayle's boss, who runs a small paranormal magazine - his house and office is behind castle walls where he owns a small farm.

There are many surprising elements in this story and some serious bad guys all involving the medium, and various hauntings.

This is a good winter's read that goes well with snuggling with a cozy blanket and a cup of tea. It does have it's grisly parts and sections of humor that involve Cindy Mars-Lewis, the lotto announcer who seems to have the hand of fate where lotto winners are concerned. I found her to be a great character and enjoyed reading of her antics in the book.

This book is also 571 pages so it's a nice thick book but you'll not notice when you read it-time goes pretty fast once you start.

I would recommend this to those who like a good, twisted story without a lot of gore and violence and enjoy the atmosphere of things that go bump in the night. Will Kingdom makes Wales a very interesting place.

I made the mistake of reading this book before first book in this series, The Cold Calling. I thought that this was a stand-alone novel, unfortunately, it's not. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had read the first book first so I could understand some of the background with the characters that isn't really explained in this book.