The Lamp of the Wicked (Merrily Watkins Series #5)

by Phil Rickman

Overview

In Merrily's fifth outing, a serial killer appears to be on the loose—and Merrily has her doubts about the detective in charge of the case

After half a century of decay, the village of Underhowle looked to be on the brink of a new prosperity. Now, instead, it seems destined for notoriety as the home of a psychotic serial killer. DI Francis Bliss, of Hereford CID, is convinced he knows where the bodies are buried. But Merrily Watkins, called in to conduct a controversial funeral, wonders if Bliss isn't blinkered by personal ambition. And are the Underhowle deaths really linked to perhaps the most sickening killings in British criminal history?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857890139
Publisher:	Atlantic Books
Publication date:	12/01/2011
Series:	Merrily Watkins Series , #5
Pages:	624
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Phil Rickman is the author of the Merrily Watkins Mystery series, which includes The Remains of an Altar, The Fabric of Sin, and To Dream of the Dead.

Editorial Reviews

A serial killer stalks a small English town in British author Rickman's fourth Merrily Watkins mystery, a darker, more disturbing tale than last year's The Cure of Souls. The Anglican priest and single mom agrees to help a parishioner, Gomer Parry, after fire destroys Gomer's business and kills his nephew. When Merrily's efforts lead to the discovery of a murdered woman's body, the police start to hunt the unscenic Herefordshire village of Underhowle, with its high-voltage power lines, for more victims. A suspect's arrest sets off a long and complex investigation involving Merrily, her musician boyfriend, Lol Robinson, and her adolescent daughter, Jane. Rickman deftly weaves in real-life serial killers Fred and Rose West, while exploring the nature of evil and the deleterious effects of radiation, electricity overload and EH (electro-hypersensitivity). Besides trying to comfort the victims' loved ones, Merrily has to deal with alleged angelic visitations, the need to keep her relationship with Lol quiet and Jane's crisis of faith. Fans of cozier parish mysteries may not find the novel to their taste, both those interested in the West case and the psychology of serial killers will be well rewarded. (Aug. 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A monumentally ambitious fourth outing for the vicar of Ledwardine church and Deliverance Consultant—the term contemporary Anglicans use for exorcist—to the Diocese of Hereford. When contractor Gomer Parry’s nephew and partner Nev dies in a suspicious fire, Parry himself burns with righteous indignation against the man he’s convinced is the killer. And after DI Francis Bliss not only learns that the accused man’s girlfriend, good-time girl Lynsey Davies, has been killed but extracts a full, if hysterically addled, confession from the suspect, who allows himself to be goaded into suicide, the stunned villagers of Underhowle are ready to close the case. But the spectacular self-immolation is only the beginning of a more unsettling mystery that links these crimes to the career of Frederick West, the most notorious real-life mass murderer in modern English history—a mystery whose riddles reach out in the most unexpected directions. Should Rev. Merrily Watkins (The Cure of Souls, not reviewed, etc.) brave public outrage to preside over the killer’s Christian burial? What anonymous donor left £80,000 in her church so that she wouldn’t have to accept a well-paying but perhaps lethal electrical transmitter within the spire? And what part are angels, ghosts, and devils playing in what looks like a most earthbound series of crimes? Merrily links criminal, psychological, moral, sociological, spiritual, and supernatural realms to dig deeper into evildoing just when most fictional sleuths would be calling it quits.

Kirkus Reviews