Title: A Crown of Lights
Author: Phil Rickman
Rating:
4 stars out of 5Publisher: Pan
Copyright: 2001
Pages: 566
Keywords: mystery
Reading period: 21-25 July, 2008
The Rev. Merrily Watkins is the "deliverance consultant" --
a euphemism for exorcist -- for a diocese on the Welsh border.
A Wiccan couple move into a long-deconsecrated church in a remote village,
and the local fundamentalist-style Anglican priest leads a witchhunt.
The viewpoint characters are all entertaining:
level-headed Merrily; her smart-alec teenager, Jane;
their old codger neighbor, Gomer;
and the two Wiccans, Betty and Robin.
The plot is both page-turning and unhurriedly developed:
the first body takes 250 pages to appear.
We learn something about contemporary village life,
Wales, Anglicanism, Wicca, and religious intolerance.
Recommended.