The Fever of the World: Merrily Watkins is back, in this chilling and transfixing mystery (Merrily Watkins Series Book 16)
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The Fever of the World: Merrily Watkins is back, in this chilling and transfixing mystery (Merrily Watkins Series Book 16)
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the closest was something that sounded more like a West Country accent... unless the reader just got it very wrong! 😆 We examine rural upheaval, and the importance of non-Christian traditions in a place that has such a close connection to the countryside. Beneath the seemingly sunny veneer there is clearly more going on in this sleepy village than you can see. This book is a mess but a very interesting mess, like a dragon's treasure mixed with a bookstore and thrown into a hurricane. Well, maybe not quite that jumbled. There's wonderful things to find like local superstitions and families behaving badly over the course of centuries, haunted houses and fairies and cider and mistaken identities and four different yet significant car crashes. The main character is a young, beautiful vicar with a teenage daughter and a dead husband who engaged in criminal activities. But Watkins’ arrival coincided with the manifestation of a local dispute. A family was hell-bent on reviving an ancient festival, one that had attracted fervent support and opposition. Jane works alongside an assortment of quirky characters to make Watkins’ life harder than it needs to be.
I was reading this at the same time as I was reading another Pippa McCathie novel (murder mystery with a Welsh setting). it was interesting thinking about the two novels against/alongside each other. the writing of this novel seemed 'better' and abit more something (in a good way). Also fun, but even sillier, is World of Weird (Channel 4), in which reporters and comedians scour the planet in search of OMGs. Kind of Louis Theroux but without any proper exploration or insight. Louis lite, then. This is number 5 in the series and the characters are developing and growing. A lot has happened in the village of Ledwardine and its environs in the year or so since Rev Merrily Watkins arrived! It's the sort of place you may not want to move to, a bit like Midsomer!! In fact this series could probably be made into a TV series, although I hope they would do it justice, and some of the grisly scenes may not be ideal for daytime viewing!Watkins’ gender elicits many a problem. There are those in the community who are not convinced that a female vicar is the right way to go. Their sensibilities are further challenged when Watkins is assigned the role of exorcist. Lol Robinson, Huw Owen and DI Franny Bliss all have sufficient roles in this novel to satisfy their fans, as does Gomer Parry, who experiences some of the tragedy too close to home for him to be forgiving. Anthea White batting for the side of light for her little clergyperson and condescending that perhaps a blessing would not cause offense. The shadow of Fred West – one of England’s most notorious murderers – still lies heavy over the Gloucester area and it seems as though once again his legend has been affecting people’s actions. Diocesan Deliverance Consultant, Merrily Watkins, is involved because she discovered the body and DI Frannie Bliss wants her to talk to their suspect. She has her own problems as she has received an anonymous donation for the church which she is unsure about accepting. The paranormal aspects are weaker here than in the last book. There is little more than a sense of the lingering evil spirit of West possibly infecting/possessing people and places.
The Wine of Angels: The Cassidy’s want to revive an ancient festival; they are also organizing a play about a clergyman from the past who was accused of witchcraft. I was attracted to the book by the description that it had elements of the supernatural. What little supernatural there was was too subtle for me (a few dreams). So, if you are not into the supernatural, this book may be for you. The Merrily Watkins series definitely features an eerie atmosphere. And yet the author’s fans would defend him by arguing that the books do not fit the horror genre. Merrily Watkins is a single mother who, after the death of her husband, becomes ordained as a Vicar (or as they prefer these days, ‘a Priest-in-Charge’) . After working in the drug dens and crime zones of Liverpool, she is given the picturesque country parish of Ledwardine and a big rambling vicarage to take care of. Merrily’s friendship with the 70 year old Gomer Perry is also very important as he is the one who always gets her out of impossible situations.I often felt as if I was reading a combination of Henry James and Jane Austen (neither of whom I enjoy), but if you do you might enjoy this book. Yes, yes, – the poor lad was tired, a bit hormonal and having bad dreams. But wait. As Vaynor is doing his job, and interviewing those who knew Portis, he meets his daughter in law, and she reminds him horribly of the woman he ‘met’ on that fateful afternoon in King Arthur’s Cave. But the village isn’t quite as quaint as she expected, and now she has a mystery on her hands, one with a supernatural twist. And as vicar, it is her job to provide resolution.
Fletcher, Harry (7 April 2015). "David Threlfall for Midwinter of the Spirit" . Retrieved 3 October 2019. A confrontation with Roddy, who is there at night apparently removing the tank himself, soon escalates into a murder enquiry. And the book starts to take a different turn, first with Roddy's seeming madness and 'confession' of being a mass murderer, and then with the effect of electrical energy on human health, for Roddy's village is surrounded by electricity pilons and his home is right next to one. Finally, the dominant theme of the second part of the book takes over where the real life serial killers, Fred (now deceased) and Rosemary West, become an integral part of the story. Merrily’s daughter Jane, on of my favourite characters in the series, is experience a very dark night of the soul while her mother becomes increasingly distracted by the events unraveling in Underhowle. This is the darkest of this series yet. It's about the aftermath, or maybe you'd say fallout, of a real-life English serial killer of the 1990's, Fred West. It’s a good book, notwithstanding some nonsense about people being allergic to electricity, but I'd have been content to go my whole life without knowing anything about West, serial killers not being one of my favorite topics to read about. Fictional ones are bad enough; this novel sometimes felt too much like a true crime book. I was interested in reading this as I had watched the TV mini series based on the 2nd book in the series Midwinter of the Spirit which I had enjoyed. I found the story slow getting started but that is not unusual with a new series as you need to establish the characters and the world they inhabit so a lot of time is spent introducing us to the characters and the village and the traditions versus the past. I think my expectations were of a story that would be a bit more paranormal and spooky but to me this was more of a mystery and a psychological thriller and I was a little disappointed as I had wanted something different from the mysteries I often read.There is the new woman in the village who is a bit too famous and a bit too interested in Merrily, as well as her husband. There is Bliss’ marriage, which may be falling about. There is the woman whose sewage semester needed to be dug up and oopsie there’s a body. Friends of the Dusk covers familiar ground for fans of the series - the uncertainties and difficulties of Merrily's life as the Hereford Diocese's "deliverance consultant" ("Exorcist" to you and me), her teenage daughter Jane's growing-up angst, Merrily's relationship with Lol and, of course, the oddly matched police couple Frannie Bliss and Annie Howe. Here, Merrily struggles with a hostile new Bishop at the same time as she gets an awkward call for help from a Muslim couple. Bliss and Howe investigate a missing skull, and Jane struggles with - well, teenage stuff. Along the way we see a very nasty old man in a care home, and reacquaint ourselves with Athena White. Can't wait to re-read it, slowly this time. Then I'll begin at the start of the series, and re-read from "Wine of Angels" and "Midwinter", until I've caught up with the FOTD and the friends in the village in the orchard. The series focuses primarily on Merilly, she focuses on actual demons and her own personal demons. Trying to bring up her 16 year old daughter single handedly after the death of her husband who'd been having an affair. The Police call in Merilly to help with a Satantic killing and a world of nasties is opened up.
She has also made a new friend at school, one that is as drawn to spiritualism as she is. Other Book Series You May LikePhil managed to do this when he wrote a documentary “Aliens” which he produced for Radio Wales and British Broadcasting Radio 4. The documentary was about the rise of English people who were moving to Wales because of the draw of cheap land in Wales, but the new residents did not receive warm welcome from the Wales native. This documentary went on to win him the Wales Current Event Affair Reporter of the Year award in 1987. After that, things become decidedly creepier. The main apple tree in the village seems to be there for more than just producing apples and it appears to bear a grudge. The proposal of a play written by celebrated gay playwright Richard Coffey on a 17th century member of the church accused of witchcraft seems to bring nothing but trouble. A party by teenager Colette Cassidy leads to her going missing, possibly in the orchard where the apple tree resides.
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