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The Secrets Of Pain (2000)

by Phil Rickman(Favorite Author)

4.06 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Horror

series

Merrily Watkins

review 1: The Secrets of Pain is the 11th book in the reliable Merrily Watkins series about an insecure single mum who just happens to be the Diocese of Hereford's exorcist, or, as the fearful Church of England prefers in these sensitised times, deliverance consultant. Some of the props are moved around and the drapes changed but it's basically the same set - and no bad thing at that. A bloody, bizarre and possibly sexually-charged murder to begin proceedings, followed by the slow unfolding of various interlinked elements of violence, perverted sexuality, sacrilegious or occult goings-on and a sprinkling of red herrings to complete the air of menace and mystery.Rickman is a workmanlike author who can rise to the occasion - he's particularly good when juxtaposing elements of old coun... moretry customs and practices with modernity, such as the vicious cockfight-organising thugette Victoria Buckland, and the doomed Marinescu sisters, who didn't deserve their bloody and appalling fate, unlovely though they be. He brings to life the thudding despair of a grim Hereford council estate - dead end lives in the back of beyond - crisply and cleanly. The underlying theme of the Merrily series - that Herefordshire is a borderland in every sense, half English, half Welsh, half land of the living, half of the dead, threads through this novel as strongly as any of its predecessors. Yet some elements jar: the action scenes can be a bit clunky, almost like he's trying to novelise a film (I'm still not entirely clear what happened with Barry's face) and Merrily's self-doubt occasionally seems contrived to keep the central character a little more interesting.But it works: pulled together, it's pacy, pretty exciting, has the occasional shock and surprise in store and there's something to be said for an author who, 11 books in, can still think of new dimensions to the ghostlands at the edge of the cathedral city. In this, it's the shade of the SAS, and an older, more sinister regiment, a band of brothers with a frightening capacity for ruthless, merciless violence, when called for. What's a chain smoking lady vicar with spiritual quandaries to do?
review 2: The 11th 'Merrily Watkins' detective/supernatural thriller; a farmer is brutally murdered, ex SAS personnel are implicated - is a Mithraic cult in existence? Longer than usual at 575 pp, but as gripping as ever. I adore this series, and have read them all. Undemanding read, like most slightly formulaic detective stories, but the C of E background and her daughter's shenanigans add to the interest, as do village life and characters. less

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