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Remains of an Altar: A Merrily Watkins Mystery (Merrily Watkins Mysteries)
by: Phil Rickman

List Price: £6.99

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Used Price: £1.25
Third Party New Price: £2.35

Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781847240910
ISBN: 1847240917
Label: Quercus Publishing Plc
Manufacturer: Quercus Publishing Plc
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: September 06, 2007
Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc
Studio: Quercus Publishing Plc
Sales Rank: 39850

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- And the sky is still there as well
It's been a constant in the Merrily Watkins series, unlike some of Mr Rickman's other excellent books, that the supernatural elements take place largely in the background of Merrily's life, and that the matters with which she deals directly turn out in most cases to be of primarily human agency. This is axiomatic in detective stories: there's no satisfaction if the murderer can't be brought, one way or another, to justice. Having said that, Mr Rickman has by now well established that the supernatural is a fundamental part of Merrily's world, such that he doesn't need to drag out the sheet with the eyeholes and the luminous tambourine every single time. Indeed, the longer the time between one confrontation with the numinous and the next, the ... Read More:

Rating:

- Worst Merrily Yet
This is the worst Merrily mystery I've read. All the previous ones have had solid supernatural / exorcism content which made them interesting. This one had zero. It seemed more like a badly plotted police novel using Elgar as the main theme. The modern elements were an intrusion and her daughter an irritation. Gomer is still Gomer thankfully.

Rating:

- Another classic enhanced by the reader
Well done, Mr Rickman. Yet another gripping tale.

This time I would also like to compliment the reader, Julie Maisey.

She clearly had a very intelligent and respectful understanding of Mr Rickman's work. By that, I mean, that she managed to scare me senseless whilst incorporating appropriate humour at every turn! I listen to a lot of audio books and often find that the reader just reads with little appreciation for the author's style. Not so with Ms Maisey. I am wondering if she has done any other recordings for other authors? If not, why not and if so, where can I find other examples of her work?

Rating:

- Time to give Merrily a holiday......
I am a huge fan of Phil Rickman and have enjoyed the Merrily Watkins series of books, but this was dull stuff. It seemed to to be a tale of a whole load of nothing to be honest, with Merrily traipsing back and forth in and out of people's houses - frankly if someone came calling at my house with her attitude I would have told her where to get off - and lamentably neglecting her child. Even the ending was a bit disappointing. I get the impression that the author is running out of ideas about what to do with Merrily, so how about giving her a rest. He wrote some superb stuff before she came along, so could she go off on a retreat for a while with Jane going backpacking round Thailand or somewhere and lets get back to the supernatural slow burner ... Read More:

Rating:

- A sort of contrived book.
I'm usually a bit of a fan of Phil Rickman and his crime fighting diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins, but I couldn't get into his most recent book, "The Remains of an Altar," because it all felt a little contrived.

In the book, a village and some Episcopalian parishioners think they're being haunted by the ghost of the (dead Catholic) composer Edward Elgar (which seems a little peculiar, I'd hope you'd agree) and Watkins goes off to investigate. At the same time drug dealers are being killed in the village (Watkins does some digging again) and Watkins' daughter (who's got some cranky ideas herself, but is usually the voice of reason about ghosts etc) has worked herself up into a tizzy and Mum isn't round to calm her down.

I'm ... Read More:

Books : Remains of an Altar: A Merrily Watkins Mystery (Merrily Watkins Mysteries)