The Cure of Souls

Description

'Black poles against the pale night.like a site laid out for a mass-crucifixion.' In Herefordshire's hop-growing country, where the river flows as dark as beer, a converted kiln is the scene of a savage murder. When the local vicar refuses to help its new owners cope with the aftermath, diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins is sent in by the Bishop. Already involved in the case of a schoolgirl whose mother thinks she's possessed by evil, the hesitant Merrily is drawn into a deadly tangle of deceit, corruption and sexual menace as she uncovers the secrets of a village with a past as twisted as the hop-bines which once enclosed it.

Phil Rickman lives on the Welsh border where he writes and presents the book programme Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales. He is the hugely popular author of The Bones of Avalon and the Merrily Watkins Mysteries.

'A haunting quality unique in crime fiction... rich in atmosphere and practically unique' Great British Fictional Detectives, Russell James 'The paranormal investigator with a down-to-earth attitude. This is no rural paradise' Sunday Telegraph