Customer Reviews

Prayer of the Night Shepherd (A Merrily Watkins Mystery)

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This sixth in Rickman's Merrily Watkins series picks up after several of the more dramatic volumes in the series and finds the diocesian exorcist and minister of Ledwardine confronting a thorny problem. Merrily has started having informal evensong services and unexpectedly, one of the attendees is cured of a fatal tumor. Merrily isn't ready to accept this sudden sign of the Lord's blessing at face value, but her congregation does. Now she must deal with her and the church's mixed attitude toward healing. Which, she discovers, many think goes hand in hand with exorcism.

The other piece of good/bad news is that Jane, Merrily's daughter and chief critic, has managed to get a weekend job as waitress and general assistant at a struggling new inn that is trying to use its tenuous connection to Arthur Conan Doyle and the hound of the Baskervilles to build a clientele. All of this on the forbidding border with Wales where, as we are often reminded, long memories and getting even is a way of life. The legends of the area include a number of characters almost as grim as their remaining heirs. Throw in mysterious black dogs and bulls, a fair amount of inherited insanity, séances, and film crews and you have the perfect environment for trouble. As usual, Jane's youthful enthusiasm leads her into the worst of the fray.

Merrily must cope with healing, spiritism, a terminally determined daughter and her blossoming relationship with Lol. Compelled by her nature she is soon in the thick of things, trying to deal with phenomena that are unresponsive to either intellect or faith. The result is a complex story that is part history, part supernatural, and part psychological thriller. Rickman is one of the few writers who seem to be able to bring the supernatural into a mystery story without destroying the overall effect.

For all the darkness of the themes, The Prayer of the Night Shepherd is much lighter in tone than the past few volumes. Not for lack of horrible events but because Jane's self confidence and Lol's gentle wisdom balance Merrily's introspectiveness perfectly. The inner story that develops around them keeps some of the dark insanity around them at bay. I found myself enjoying the break, as well as all the bits of Sherlockiana and bleak border history. For all that this is volume 7, it stands pretty well on its own. I've managed to read this series completely out of order and don't feel I missed anything but an occasional bit of context.

Phil Rickman is one of my favorite authors. His West Country mysteries, always with a generous sprinkle of English history, Celtic mysticism and superstition, never fail to captivate. Prayer is no exception. The Reverend Merrily Watkins is a winningly human sort of priest, with a neo-pagan daughter and a former rock star boyfriend. Supporting characters are equally well-drawn. While Rickman's plot this time round is quite complex, he moves it along at a fast pace, dropping clues to the reader if the reader's sharp enough to catch them. The surprises don't end till the very last page. If you think evil is an abstract concept, read one of Rickman's books.

Anyone who has never read the haunting, facinating, imaginative and meticulously researched novels of British West Country author Phil Rickman is in for an enormous treat.

Set in a decrepit but captivating old hotel with a dark history on the Welsh/English border, and taking place over the Christmas holiday season of snow and ice and wuthering winds, the story deals with modern murder and ancient devilry, from a mysterious, beautiful woman with a violent past living under an alias, to a machiavellian medaeval lord who haunts a local, historic church alternately in the form of a bull or a smouldering black hellhound, to a sexually predatory Victorian dominatrix with a passion for fox hunting and youthful male conquests, and a documentary film maker with a group of scholars who are convinced that Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic Hound of the Baskervilles was conceived not in Devon, but in this part of the world, all make up a twisting, anxiety-producing tale full of suspense and surprises that leaves the reader with as many provocative querries as answers--and makes you want more of Rickman's riveting yarns, and with his enduring Merrily Watkins series, as well as his other, uniquely connected novels, you won't be disappointed!

Stories of phantom black dogs abound in Britain. Almost every county has its own variant, from the Black Shuck of East Anglia to the Bogey Beast of Yorkshire. In this novel, the ghost hound of Herefordshire on the Welsh border foreshadows a death in the Vaughan family. The family is also cursed with an ancestor named Black Vaughan, who is believed by the author to be the basis for the hellish Hugo of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles." Did Sir Arthur really take his tale of the phosphorescent Hound from the Welsh Border rather than foggy Dartmoor?

According to an article in the 06/01/04 "Telegraph," Rickman's theory on the origins of 'The Hound' is about to appear in the magazine "Sherlock."

Evidently this author discovered that Herefordshire had a population of medieval Baskervilles, not to mention Mortimers and Stapletons, and many local people still refuse to walk near Black Vaughan's home of Hergest Croft at night for fear of seeing his ghost and that of his hound.

Sherlock Holmes fans might want to read this book just to ferret out Rickman's research on Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous dog story.

Since "The Prayer of the Night Shepherd" is also a Merrily Watkins procedural, many familiar characters appear from Rickman's previous novels. Merrily, Vicar of Ledwardine and Deliverance Consultant to the Diocese of Hereford reluctantly takes on a new role as a healer of physical ailments. Gomer Parry, the manic digger-for-hire who is one of my favorite Rickman creations, has a minor walk-on. Merrily's daughter Jane is as usual, in the thick of the supernatural goings-on at Stanner Hall. Poor Lol, the musician is still trying to spend quality time with Merrily, but is thwarted by a snowstorm, a couple of attempted murders, an attempted suicide, and a real murder--not to mention a phantom hound.

This book is an unsettling mix of murder mystery, indigestible lumps of Rickman's 'Hound' research, and swirls of supernatural vapor. What really happened to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when or if he visited Herefordshire? What did Jane really experience in the tower room under the witch's hat at Stanner Hall? What did the medium from the White Company really see?

I was left scratching my head over this latest installment of Merrily Watkins's venture into the dim, dangerous netherworld of Anglican theology.

The Prayer of the Night Shepherd is the sixth entry in the Merrily Watkins series. As is the case with any novel based on a set of recurring characters, this could either be a cause for celebration or a cookie-cutter rehash of previous novels. For some authors, this would be just another paint-by-the-numbers exercise that would build on previous successes but fail to break new ground. Thankfully, this isn't the case with Rickman and his most recent work. He gives faithful readers all of the suspense and supernatural intrigue they've come to love while throwing a fresh slant on the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Like so many of Rickman's novels, this one is set on the mysterious Welsh border. In particular, it is set in a Victorian hotel that is rumored to be the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. The cast of characters who live and operate at that hotel are equally as dark and enigmatic as the surrounding countryside and the legends which thrive there. In fact, most of the characters in this book aren't what they seem at first glance. Beware, there are skeletons in every closet, and Rickman examines those old bones in detail.

Chief among those intrigued by the legend of The Hound is the hotel's owner, Ben Foley. Ben is a washed-up television producer who buys the Stanner Hall Hotel in order to start a new life with his wife Amber who incidentally serves as the hotel's cook. Thought to be drifters who were just passing through, Natalie Craven and her daughter, Clancy, find positions at the hotel as well while taking up residence with the quiet brooding farmer, Jeremy Berrows who lives at a nearby farm called The Nant. Rounding out the staff at the hotel is Jane Watkins, daughter of Merrily Watkins who happens to be the Deliverance Consultant for the Diocese of Hereford.

For those familiar with the previous Merrily Watkins novels, Jane plays a larger role in this novel than she has in previous Merrily novels. For those of us who have come to love her acerbic wit and dry sarcasm, this is a welcome development. Rickman skillfully uses Jane and her curiosity in the pagan lifestyle as a counterpoint to Merrily's stance as an Anglican priest. What results is an interesting twist of irony between mother and daughter that runs throughout the novel as Jane becomes involved with The White Company, a group of spiritualists whose beliefs are in direct contradiction to everything that Merrily stands for as an Anglican priest. Lol Robinson, Gomer Parry, and Frannie Bliss invariably show up in the narrative as well, lending familiarity and dark humor to an unfamiliar and bleak set of circumstances.

As is the case with most of Rickman's novels, there are usually several storylines going on simultaneously, and this book is no exception. Foremost, a group of spiritualists called The White Company attempts to summon Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's spirit at the hotel where Jane is working while a documentary maker named Antony Largo plans to capture it all on tape. Meanwhile, Merrily finds herself in a bit of a dilemma when her parishioners start to view her as a sort of miracle worker, bombarding her with requests for divine healing. This becomes tricky and even dangerous when she is asked to heal the nephew of one of her parishioners only to find out that there is much more to him than meets the eye. Then there is the dilemma of Jeremy Berrows, a local farmer who is constantly being intimidated and indirectly threatened by Sebbie Dacre, a regional landowner who has hired a group of hunters to track down and kill a large black dog that has been sighted on Jeremy's land. Also "living" at the hotel is the supposed ghost of Hattie Chancery, previous owner of Stanner Hall who committed suicide in one of its rooms after bashing her husband's head in.

Without recounting too much of the story and spoiling what turns out to be several well-kept secrets involving character lineage and motive, let it suffice to say there are enough twists and turns to keep readers guessing. Rickman deftly weaves several subplots into a cohesive story without losing the atmosphere that has become one of his trademarks. The Prayer of the Night Shepherd has murder, legends involving an ancestral evil that is passed down from generation to generation, attempted suicide, a famous convicted killer who has changed identities and walks about the hotel unrecognized, and sightings of an ominous black dog that foreshadows death.

The Prayer of the Night Shepherd is every bit as good as the other books in the Merrily Watkins series. It is also an ideal place to start for the uninitiated as it doesn't draw too heavily on the history of the characters or any of the events that took place in previous books. If you're a Merrily Watkins fan, a fan of the Sherlock Holmes series, an avid reader of mysteries, or just love a well-crafted tale full of paranormal suspense, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.

Phil Rickman is one of my favorite authors and his series with Rev. Merrily Watkins are a really good read. He is a British author, not well known in USA but really deserves to be. You care about the characters and the hint's at paranormal activity are cleverly written, so that there might just be a "normal" or rational explaination for the events. His other novels, non Merrily Watkins, are excellent for anyone who enjoys the thrill of a well researched, well written paranormal novel. My absolute number one pick of his novels is "December". I have gone back to this over the years and read it again and again, it never gets old.

Stories of phantom black dogs abound in Britain. Almost every county has its own variant, from the Black Shuck of East Anglia to the Bogey Beast of Yorkshire. In this novel, the ghost hound of Herefordshire on the Welsh border foreshadows a death in the Vaughan family. The family is also cursed with an ancestor named Black Vaughan, who is believed by the author to be the basis for the hellish Hugo of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles." Did Sir Arthur really take his tale of the phosphorescent Hound from the Welsh Border rather than foggy Dartmoor?

Evidently this author discovered that Herefordshire had a population of medieval Baskervilles, not to mention Mortimers and Stapletons, and many local people still refuse to walk near Black Vaughan's home of Hergest Croft at night for fear of seeing his ghost and that of his hound.

Sherlock Holmes fans might want to read this book just to ferret out Rickman's research on Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous dog story.

Since "The Prayer of the Night Shepherd" is also a Merrily Watkins procedural, many familiar characters appear from Rickman's previous novels. Merrily, Vicar of Ledwardine and Deliverance Consultant to the Diocese of Hereford reluctantly takes on a new role as a healer of physical ailments. Gomer Parry, the manic digger-for-hire who is one of my favorite Rickman creations, has a minor walk-on. Merrily's daughter Jane is as usual, in the thick of the supernatural goings-on at Stanner Hall. Poor Lol, the musician is still trying to spend quality time with Merrily, but is thwarted by a snowstorm, a couple of attempted murders, an attempted suicide, and a real murder--not to mention a phantom hound.

This book is an unsettling mix of murder mystery, indigestible lumps of Rickman's 'Hound' research, and swirls of supernatural vapor. What really happened to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when or if he visited Herefordshire? What did Jane really experience in the tower room under the witch's hat at Stanner Hall? What did the medium from the White Company really see?

I was left scratching my head over this latest installment of Merrily Watkins's venture into the dim, dangerous netherworld of Anglican theology.