Midwinter of the Spirit [Import] [Paperback]

Phil Rickman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0333751469
• ISBN-13: 978-0333751466
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,627,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Midwinter" Has Its Doldrums, May 20, 2002

By 

David Skeele (Slippery Rock, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midwinter of the Spirit (A Merrily Watkins Mystery) (Paperback)

Let me start by saying that I am a real fan of Phil Rickman--I think he writes better supernatural thrillers than anyone in the business, and it is a shame that he hasn't found a bigger audience in the U.S. However, I found Midwinter of the Spirit to be one of his weaker efforts. Granted, all of his usual strengths are displayed here. His characters are colorful and real, and the dialogue is richly idiosyncratic. Stylistically, he once again seems incapable of sounding a false note (and how many horror writers can one say that about?). The problem, as I see it, is in the structure. The book seems strangely "cinematic," in that Rickman has developed an infuriating habit of cutting to a new scene the moment he manages to build a bit of suspense, and thus momentum is always being lost. And even more important, the book is simply not as scary as most of his other books--there is nothing in this one that rivals the horrific thrills of say, Curfew, or Candlenight. There are two or three somewhat unsettling scenes (the attempted "deliverance" of Denzil Joy is a classic), but they are scattered far and wide, and divorced from any real narrative build, they do not have much of an impact. And finally, Rickman again commits the sin of which he is often guilty: too easily resolving the conflict that he has so laboriously built. So much is made of an impending church ceremony in which demonic forces might storm the portals and wreak havoc on earth, but when the ceremony finally arrives, the catastrophe is averted almost effortlessly: all it takes is the prayer of a dying priest and the unexpected kindness of a teenager. The effect of the quick and tidy resolution is that the evil seems to been overrated from the start, leaving this reader wondering why he spent so much time believing in it.
As I say, I admire Phil Rickman immensely, so I'm sure this book is just a bump in the road of his distinguished career. I'm reading A Crown of Lights right now, and I'm happy to say that it seems far more satisfying.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Sacrifice of Crows, August 22, 2004

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Midwinter of the Spirit (A Merrily Watkins Mystery) (Paperback)

Phil Rickman is an author of British horror stories who has the ability to put together a 500-and-some page novel (with small print) without grinding down the reader. He does this without giving way to the temptation to spray everything with gore, and spends time building both interior and exterior structure and characterization. Even so, I approached Midwinter of the Spirit with some trepidation, because the central plot device, a female Episcopalian vicar turned church exorcist sounded a bit too sensationalist to me. Now that I've actually taken the time to read one of the Merrily Watkins stories I can honestly say that this is some of his best work.

Midwinter of the Spirit is the first of the exorcist novels (not counting the one that introduces Merrily as a vicar). After suffering through a visitation of her own, Merrily is offered the position of exorcist by the young bishop of Hereford (in modern times we don't call them exorcists, though - Merrily is a 'deliverance consultant'). After a short course in creatures of the night Merrily is thrust right into the middle of Hereford's occult world, hampered by her predecessor who is a misogynistic curate of the strictest kind. He doesn't hesitate to throw her into a confrontation that is over her head and from that point on we leap from crisis to crisis.

In addition to Merrily's issues within the church, her sixteen-year-old daughter has become determined to try out her own wings. Jane begins to dabble into exactly the kind of spiritualism that Merrily is expected to oppose. Lured into the world of the craft by a new friend, Jane's first steps trigger a series of events that quickly go beyond family spats. And in a third subplot, Moon, a somewhat spooky young archeologist with a history of instability moves into a barn haunted by her own past. She is intent on writing a history of the Neolithic culture that lies beneath modern Hereford. But somehow she finds herself trying to make a connection to her father's suicide - with disastrous results.

The publisher's description calls that the first 'spiritual-procedural' thriller, and that is very much what it is about. Far from being overdosing the reader with huge amounts of ritual magic, Rickman manages a deft mix of magic, the personal lives of some interesting people (Merrily is nothing like what you would expect a vicar to be), and a set of puzzles that read almost like a spy thriller. The blend is surprisingly believable despite a string of sacrifices, psychic events, and magical powers. I was delighted with the work, and am looking forward to the other volumes in the series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Effortless supernatural thriller, September 4, 2002

By 

ilmk "ilmk" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midwinter of the Spirit (A Merrily Watkins Mystery) (Paperback)

I was introduced to Phil Rickman quite by chance several years back when he first produced Crybbe and was instantly hooked. The Welsh/English border is the perfect setting for his heady mix of celtic supernatural and modern new age characters. Existing in the twilight that is often so well depicted by James Herbert, he has produced, over the years, several linked tales that take you on the ancient paths of England's West Country invariably pulling fourteenth through seventeenth century tales of malice and horror to reemerge a sinister forces through the late twentieth century.
So it is with Midwinter of the Spirit. A tale woven around exorcism and possession, our main protagonist is the return of Reverend Merrily Watkins from the Wine of Angels, a single mother who is prepared to both acknowledge and involve herself with the practical nature of exorcism. A lack of assistance by the outgoing resident and a continuing troubled relationship with her daughter leads Merrily to join forces with Lol Robinson (who'll crop up in A Crown of Lights and The Cure of Souls - a rough quartet we wonder? Or, perhaps the emergence of Rickman's favoured sleuth?) to investigate and eventually confront an ancient evil at the heart of the Cathedral where the shrine of St Thomas was destroyed.
Rickman's works must rank him alongside James Herbert, and there are inevitable comparisons to King - though I think his work is of a different nature - and The Midwinter of the Spirit only confirms him as as established master of the supernatural thriller.