The first unputdownable suspense novel in the bestselling Merrily Watkins series_________________________'Few writers blend the ancient and supernatural with the modern and criminal better than Rickman' GUARDIAN'A most original sleuth' THE TIMES'Brilliantly eerie' PETER JAMES___________________________The Merrily Watkins series will have you hooked. Join Merrily in her chilling tales of murder, mystery and intrigue.The new vicar had never wanted a picture-postcard parish - or a huge and haunted vicarage. Nor had she wanted to walk into a dispute over a controversial play about a seventeenth-century clergyman accused of witchcraft... a story that certain long-established families would rather remained obscure.But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets... A paradise of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses. And also - as Merrily Watkins and her teenage daughter, Jane, discover - a village where horrific murder is a tradition that spans centuries._______________________Readers love Phil Rickman and the Merrily Watkins series...'Well done, Mr Rickman, well done!''Splendidly mixes mystery, suspense and the supernatural''The most enjoyable series of books I have ever read''The most innovative and unique thriller writer''A brilliant start to an excellent series'