The Prayer of the Night Shepherd (MW6)

There were certain phrases you could feel, like fingers up your spine. Hattie Chancery's room. The possessive. Present tense. Oh God... A 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 Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. Fascinating for young Jane Watkins, flushed by the freedom of her first weekend job. But the sinister side becomes increasingly apparent to her mother, Merrily, diocesan exorcist for Hereford. Then come memories of a child-killer, blood in the fresh snow...From Publishers WeeklyWhen unemployed TV producer Ben Foley discovers that running murder-mystery weekends at Stanner Hall, an old Herefordshire mansion turned hotel he’s purchased, isn’t as profitable as he anticipated, he determines to prove his theory that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had in mind a tale from the Welsh border region, not Devon, for the background to The Hound of the Baskervilles. In British author Rickman’s chilling fifth entry in his occult crime series (The Lamp of the Wicked, etc.) featuring Merrily Watkins, the single mom, Anglican priest and exorcist gets involved in sinister doings rooted in actual legend, as the author explains in his afterword. Merrily’s independent 17-year-old daughter, Jane, takes a job with the hotel and enthusiastically supports Foley’s plans, until the local legend of a black dog that foreshadows death becomes all too real. A pre-Christmas snowstorm provides a shivering backdrop to events at Stanner Hall that lead Merrily, boyfriend Lol Robinson and Jane into a night none of them will forget. Human greed and evil, plus the healing properties of faith, combine to create a fascinating and fast-paced read. Sherlock Holmes fans, especially members of the Baker Street Irregulars, will be intrigued by an organization called "The Baker Street League."Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review“A fine mixture of murder and the occult.” -- Library Journal“Chilling… fast–paced… provocative… even skeptics of the paranormal will shudder with fear.” -- Publishers Weekly for The Cure of Souls“Human greed and evil, plus the healing properties of faith, combine to create a fascinating and fast-paced read.” -- Publishers Weekly Review Annex“Rickman, a thinking reader's Elizabeth George, continues his traversal of Welsh superstitions, Church of England conundrums, and true-crime touchstones.” -- Kirkus Review