The Prayer of the Night ShepherdA crumbling hotel on the border of England and Wales. A suggestion of inherited evil, a strange love affair... and the long-disputed origins of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles The Hound of the Baskervilles. Young Jane Watkins is fascinated, but her mother, Merrily, Diocesan Exorcist, can soon see the sinister side. Especially when blood appears in the fresh snow.The Smile of a GhostIn the affluent, historic town of Ludlow, a teenage boy dies in a fall from the castle ruins. Accident or suicide? And why does the boys uncle turn to exoricist Merrily Watkins? Merrily must work fast as the death toll rises, but there is a dangerous obsession lurking in these shadowed medieval streets.

A standalone supernatural thriller from the author of the chilling Merrily Watkins MysteriesGlastonbury, legendary resting place of the Holy Grail, is a mysterious and haunting town. But when plump, dizzy Diane Ffitch returns home, its with a sense of deep unease - and not only about her aristocratic familys reaction to her broken engagement and her New Age companions. Plans for a new motorway have intensified the old bitterness between the local people and the pilgrims, so already the sacred air is soured. And, as the town becomes increasingly split by violence and death, Diane, local bookseller Juanita Carey and the writer Joe Powys must now face up to the worst of all possibilities: the existence of an anti-Grail - the dark chalice.A PHIL RICKMAN STANDALONE NOVEL

A standalone supernatural thriller from the author of the chilling Merrily Watkins Mysteries.December has the shortest days, the darkest nights... In the ruins of a medieval abbey on the Welsh Border, four young musicians start work on an album influenced by the sites bloody history. Its December 1980 - the night John Lennon will be murdered in New York. And therell be more horror before the sun rises and the session tapes are burned. Or are they? Years later, Moira, Dave, Tom and Simon are persuaded to return to the abbey to complete the recordings they thought had been destroyed. But the old tapes - and all the darkness they contain - have been restored. And its December again.A PHIL RICKMAN STANDALONE NOVEL

The Cure of Souls When the local vicar refuses to help his parishioners in the aftermath of a savage murder, Diocesan Exorcist Merrily Watkins is sent in by the bishop. Already involved in the case of a schoolgirl whose mother thinks shes possessed by evil, Merrily is drawn into a deadly tangle of deceit as she uncovers the twisted secrets of the villages past.The Lamp of the WickedA serial killer is on the loose in the small village of Underhowle. DI Francis Bliss is convinced he knows where the bodies are buried. But Merrily wonders if Bliss isnt blinkered by personal ambition. And are the Underhowle deaths really linked to some of the most sickening killings in British history?

A thrilling collection starring the intriguing Merrily Watkins - late thirties, single mum, and diocesan exorcistThe Cure of SoulsWhen the local vicar refuses to help his parishioners in the aftermath of a savage murder, diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins is sent in by the bishop. Already involved in the case of a schoolgirl whose mother thinks shes possessed by evil, Merrily is drawn into a deadly tangle of deceit as she uncovers the twisted secrets of the villages past.The Lamp of the WickedA serial killer is on the loose in the small village of Underhowle. DI Francis Bliss is convinced he knows where the bodies are buried. But Merrily wonders if Bliss isnt blinkered by personal ambition. And are the Underhowle deaths really linked to some of the most sickening killings in British history?

December, and the river is rising. The village of Ledwardine has never been flooded in living memory. Within days it will be an island. There''s no electricity. The church is serving as a temporary mortuary for two people who drowned. Only one man feels safer. An aggressively-atheist author has been moved, for his own safety, Rushdie-style, into a secluded house just outside the village. Fundamentalist Christians have hated him for years. Now he''s offended the Muslims. Bad move. Meanwhile, archaeologists, assisted by Merrily''s teenage daughter, Jane, are at work in Coleman''s Meadow, unearthing an ancient row of standing stones which some people would rather stay buried. The atheist''s temporary home is close to the site. And his young wife is becoming conspicuously agitated. Is it the fear of discovery - or the kind of fear that she, of all people, could never disclose? One thing is clear: the last person who''s going to be welcome in that house is an exorcist. With the flood water washing up Church Lane towards the vicarage and the shop running out of cigarettes it looks like a cold and complex Christmas for Merrily Watkins in an ancient community forced to untangle its own history against the swirling uncertainty of the future.

"Esta toma se encontró en la pared al lado de la chimenea. Se ha sugerido que podría devolverlo a su lugar correcto. Cuando una iglesia redundante es comprada por una pareja joven pagano, el ministro fundamentalista local reacciona con furia. En una comunidad aislada en la frontera galesa, una caza de brujas moderna comienza. Alegremente exorcista diocesano Watkins se espera que mantenga la tapa en la olla ... pero lo que ella descubre en serio pondrá a prueba sus creencias. Además, está el problema del procurador país que no quiere separarse de su esposa muerta. El misterio de las cinco iglesias antiguas todo dedicada a San Miguel, matador de dragones. Y un asesino con una vieja tradición de guardia ...

In the ruins of a haunted medieval abbey, four musicians hope to tap into the site's dark history. The experience almost destroys them. Years later, the original group is forced to return to the abbey, to confront the old evil they discovered...

A PHIL RICKMAN STANDALONE NOVELA supernatural thriller from the author of the chilling Merrily Watkins Mysteries.Though dead for two millennia, he remains perfectly preserved in black peat. The Man in the Moss is one of the most fascinating finds of the century. But, for the isolated Pennine community of Bridelow, his removal is a sinister sign. A danger to the ancient spiritual tradition maintained, curiously, by the Mothers Union.In the weeks approaching Samhain - the Celtic feast of the dead - tragedy strikes again in Bridelow. Scottish folk singer Moira Cairns and American film producer Mungo Macbeth discover their Celtic roots are deeper and darker than they imagined. And, as fundamentalist zealots of both Christian and satanic persuasions challenge an older, gentler faith, the village faces a natural disaster unknown since the reign of Henry VIII. Gripping throughout. Powerful, classic stuff. - The Times

Tudor intrigue, murder and the dark arts - the second in an acclaimed historical series starring Dr John DeeAll talk is of the End-time... and the dead are rising.At the end of the sunless summer of 1560, black rumour shrouds the death of the one woman who stands between Lord Robert Dudley and marriage to the young Queen Elizabeth. Did Dudleys wife, Amy, die from an accidental fall in a deserted house, or was it murder? Even Dr John Dee, astrologer royal, adviser on the Hidden and one of Dudleys oldest friends, is uncertain. Then a rash promise to the Queen sends him to his familys old home on the Welsh Border in pursuit of the Wigmore Shewstone, a crystal credited with supernatural properties.With Dee goes Robert Dudley, considered the most hated man in England. They travel with a London judge sent to try a sinister Welsh brigand with a legacy dating back to the Battle of Brynglas. After the battle, many of the English bodies were, according to legend, obscenely mutilated. Now, on the same haunted hill, another dead man has been found, similarly slashed.Devious politics, small-town corruption, twisted religion and a brooding superstition leave John Dee isolated in the land of his father.

A standalone supernatural thriller from the author of the chilling Merrily Watkins Mysteries.For four hundred years, the curfew bell has tolled nightly from the church tower of the small country town, Crybbes only defence against the evil rising unbidden in its haunted streets.Radio reporter Fay Morrison came to Crybbe because she had no choice. Millionaire music tycoon Max Goff came because there was nothing left to conquer, except the power of the spirit. But he knew nothing of the towns legacy of dark magic - and nobody felt like telling him...A PHIL RICKMAN STANDALONE NOVEL

Grimly sinister. Written with blood-curdling aplomb. - Sunday TelegraphLeo Defford doesnt believe in ghosts. But, as the head of an independent production company, he does believe in high-impact TV. Defford hires journalist Grayle Underhill to research the history of Knap Hall, a one-time Tudor farmhouse that became the ultimate luxury guest house... until tragedy put it back on the market. Its recent history isnt conducive to a quick sale, but Defford isnt interested in keeping Knap Hall for longer than it takes to make a reality TV show that will run night after night... A house isolated by its rural situation and its dark reputation. Seven people, nationally known, but strangers to one another, locked inside. But this time, Big Brother may not be in control.A PHIL RICKMAN STANDALONE NOVEL

Merrily Watkins, parish priest, single mum and Deliverance Consultant to the Diocese of Hereford, heads for the Malvern Hills to investigate an alleged paranormal dimension to a spate of road accidents in the sleepy village of Wychehill. Merrily is called in when two people are killed in a head-on crash that is also linked to the revamped local pub which, it seems, has injected the valley with a shattering, strobing surge of inner-city nightlife ...and drugs. When a dealer is found savagely murdered below the great earthen hillfort of Herefordshire Beacon, police ask: is it a ritual killing, a gangland disposal or a cry of outrage? As Merrily and the police follow separate paths towards the truth, Merrily''s teenage daughter, Jane, faces the consequences of her own obsession with a possibly prehistoric site in their home village of Ledwardine. Until, on a night of frenzied violence, in a place at the centre of an ancient, universal mystery, the final, shocking connections are made.