The Magus of Hay

Description

The castle was moonlight-vast, all its ages fused together by the shadows, chimney stacks like the backs of hands turned black. Hay-on-Wye: a eccentric medieval town known for its dozens of secondhand bookshops. and for having its own king. Now in the grip of recession, Hay is fighting for its future. Not the best time to open a bookshop, but Robin and Betty are desperate, and only Betty worries about the oppressive atmosphere of the shop they're renting. Merrily Watkins, diocesan exorcist for nearby Hereford, knows little about Hay until a body is found in the dark pool below a waterfall on the outskirts of the town and the police ask her to assist. The dead man's peculiar interests will open a passage to the hidden heart of Hay and a secret history of magic and ritual murder. And Merrily is alone and vulnerable as never before.

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 acclaimed author of The Heresy of Dr Dee, The Bones of Avalon, Midwinter of the Spirit (now a major ITV series), the Merrily Watkins series and the John Dee Papers. Visit his website at: www.philrickman.co.uk.

Interweaves the threads of murder, police procedure, the power of landscape and faint but potent wisps of the supernatural to produce a literary cloth of gold. A unique talent in cracking form. * Crime Fiction Lover * Rickman's writing style reflects his subject matter: spooky and indirect, elegantly crafted but always a sense of shadow behind you, that you've missed something you should have seen. * New York Review Of Books * Hell, it's good. I ended up turning the pages faster and faster, even though I wanted to stretch it out as long as possible. * Crime Review *