The first Merrily Watkins Mystery - The Wine of Angels - from Phil Rickman, the bestselling author of The John Dee Papers.

THE FIRST IN THE INCREDIBLE MERRILY WATKINS SERIES
Merrily Watkins: late thirties, single mum, parish priest. Cosy? I don't think so...


The new vicar had never wanted a picture-postcard parish - or a huge and haunted vicarage. Nor had she wanted to walk into a dispute over a controversial play about a seventeenth-century clergyman accused of witchcraft... a story that certain long-established families would rather remained obscure.

But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets...

A paradise of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses. And also - as Merrily Watkins and her teenage daughter, Jane, discover - a village where horrific murder is a tradition that spans centuries.

"Ancient history, violent deaths, feuds, intrigues and murder. A most original sleuth." - The Times

"A wonderful, enthralling read. Huge tensions. All too believable. You are there with poor Merrily every step of the way. " - Daily Express

"A first rate thriller with supernatural overtones . . . deftly illuminates the intrigues of village life." - Publishers Weekly

"Well, Holmes did say that the lowest and vilest alleys of London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside . . ." - Jerusalem Post