The Wine Of Angels

by Phil Rickman | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0330342681 Global Overview for this book
Registered by quinnsmom of Hobe Sound, Florida USA on 6/13/2003
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by quinnsmom from Hobe Sound, Florida USA on Friday, June 13, 2003
I want to read the entire series, then decide if I will be giving them up. Check back.

Journal Entry 2 by quinnsmom from Hobe Sound, Florida USA on Thursday, January 25, 2007
keeping
BR

Wavering somewhere between a mystery and a novel of supernatural suspense, novelist Phil Rickman (one of my favorite supernatural suspense writers) introduces the "priest-in-training" Merrily Watkins, who is trying to do her best as an Anglican vicar in a village caught between the new "incomers" and those who have always lived there. She finds a lot of prejudice against women in the clergy, along with some other bizarre occurrences that she is unable to explain. Set in the English village of Ledwardine, Merrily gets caught up in a very strange mystery that only increases in depth as the novel gets on. It all starts with a strange "wassailing" she witnesses in which an elderly man gets his head blown off with a shotgun. From there on, the mystery gets stranger and stranger, with a great deal of supernatural overtones.

Merrily's character is done well, but obviously, since this novel is the first in a series (the rest of which I own but have not yet read), I'm not sure if she's as fully developed as she could be. Perhaps Rickman saves this for future books. I love her daughter Jane, and the relationship that the two have. Overall, I think it's a fun book; there is a little bit of weirdness attached to the solution of the mystery of Wil Williams (which you'll understand if you read the book!) and while I like supernatural books, for some reason, mixing the supernatural aspect and the solving of the mystery just didn't do it for me this time. At 629 pages, though, it does go quickly because the story holds your interest until you're done.

I would recommend it to people who like mysteries with a hint of supernatural forces involved, and also to people who like British village type murders not in the cozy genre. Fun book; now I'm looking forward to #2.

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