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pranavroh's review
3.0
Phil Rickman is truly the master of psychological horror. The supernatural elements in his books seem mere signposts to deeper human issues – the fear of mortality, the dark sides of memory and nostalgia and the horror that can lie underneath the most unassuming human lives. Not many read his books in India or the USA – they should. This is how supernatural thrillers are written. There are no jump scares, gore or secret midnight rites – the horror is all too real and possible – and you are left wondering if there is any supernatural element at all. In fact, humans seem capable of the worst acts of aggression sans the supernatural to goad them on.
The series focuses on Merrily Watkins, a pretty, middle aged deliverance minister for the diocese of Hereford-shire and the Church of England. Deliverance is merely a diplomatic term that hides her true vocation – she is the church sponsored exorcist, the only female one in a long time. A single mother, she spends most of her time engaged in verbal jousts with her daughter Jane and brooding over her love affair with an ageing musician with severe agoraphobia – Lol Robinson – while juggling her night job – offering spiritual succor to the residents of a countryside that hides several legends (some not so pleasant) under its innocent green facade.
A skull stolen from an accidentally unearthed body sets the tone for this particular adventure. Frannie Bliss, the local detective is still figuring out his life – when he is sucked into a murder which seems obliquely related to the theft. Merrily, meanwhile is called in to a Muslim household and asked to help with a presence lurking in their manor – complicating a vocation already threatened by the new Bishop of Herefordshire – a practical man who feels it is time to move away from the deliverance ministry and towards a modern church. Add Jane and her existential angst and Lol Robinson, agoraphobia in full blast to the mix and you have a powder-keg of the stuff that makes up the best of Phil Rickman.
Except that this offering kind of fizzles out towards the end. The supernatural is resolved with a solution that seems too pat and easy and stops on the cusp of wish fulfillment. The more quotidian worries of the characters are also resolved more to their satisfaction than ours and seem mere distractions from the larger plot.
This has happened before as Rickman tries to balance the emotional drama between the characters with the mystery unfolding in the book.This works sometimes and fails miserably at others but it always leaves me wanting more – some of the individual books may be far from perfect but the series as a whole is excellent.
Give it a try
The series focuses on Merrily Watkins, a pretty, middle aged deliverance minister for the diocese of Hereford-shire and the Church of England. Deliverance is merely a diplomatic term that hides her true vocation – she is the church sponsored exorcist, the only female one in a long time. A single mother, she spends most of her time engaged in verbal jousts with her daughter Jane and brooding over her love affair with an ageing musician with severe agoraphobia – Lol Robinson – while juggling her night job – offering spiritual succor to the residents of a countryside that hides several legends (some not so pleasant) under its innocent green facade.
A skull stolen from an accidentally unearthed body sets the tone for this particular adventure. Frannie Bliss, the local detective is still figuring out his life – when he is sucked into a murder which seems obliquely related to the theft. Merrily, meanwhile is called in to a Muslim household and asked to help with a presence lurking in their manor – complicating a vocation already threatened by the new Bishop of Herefordshire – a practical man who feels it is time to move away from the deliverance ministry and towards a modern church. Add Jane and her existential angst and Lol Robinson, agoraphobia in full blast to the mix and you have a powder-keg of the stuff that makes up the best of Phil Rickman.
Except that this offering kind of fizzles out towards the end. The supernatural is resolved with a solution that seems too pat and easy and stops on the cusp of wish fulfillment. The more quotidian worries of the characters are also resolved more to their satisfaction than ours and seem mere distractions from the larger plot.
This has happened before as Rickman tries to balance the emotional drama between the characters with the mystery unfolding in the book.This works sometimes and fails miserably at others but it always leaves me wanting more – some of the individual books may be far from perfect but the series as a whole is excellent.
Give it a try
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