The Magus of Hay

A 4.5 star read for me, and I'm glad I saved it for holiday reading so I could devour it as quickly as I liked. Any concerns I might have had that the Merrily Watkins novels were starting to get a little same-ish were completely dispelled. There is much less of the domestic dramas of Ledwardine and the vicarage that characterised the last few novels, and the welcome return of some great supporting characters like Gwyn Arthur Jones and Athena White. As per usual, the supernatural elements (including the secondary ones) are skilfully and sensitively drawn. I was left at the end of the book with a real sense of Merrily at a crossroads, so I can't wait to see where the story arc goes from here!

One of the best of the later books. I love the way real life people are intermingled with Rickman's own created characters in Hay on Wye. Here we are reunited with Betty and Robin Thorogood, the benign pagans from "Crown of Lights". But even more character longevity is achieved by Gwyn Arthur Jones, the retired detective. He goes right back to Rickman's first novel, "Candlenight". There's lovely.
Just one quibble: (apart from Merrily smoking, and not getting enough food or sleep...still) the villains are quite minor characters in the main story, achieving importance only at the end. Much better when you get to know such characters early on and they are an integral part of the story, eg Rowenna or Mick Hunter in "Midwinter of the Spirit".

Wine of Angels, the first novel in Phil Rickman’s “Merrily Watkins” series appeared in 1998. Since then, the series has developed from novels mixing mystery with the occult and the spooky to novels using crime fiction plots to chronicle the increasing decline of the English countryside and its sense of community. Which was fine with me, as it was always Rickman’s sense of locale and his atmospheric description of British village life which appealed to me most about the series.

I do not know whether other readers had issues with the direction the series has taken, or whether Phil Rickman wanted to return to the series’ original concept, but in any case The Magus of Hay, currently the most recent installment (published in 2013), show more feels very much like a “return to the roots” novel. Merrily Watkins, who had rather kept in the background during the last few volumes, stands firmly in the centre of this one, both her daughter Jane (on an archeological dig with her boyfriend Eirion) and and her lover Lol (on tour with his music) are mostly absent, as is Gomer Parry. Frannie Bliss continues to be a point of view, however, and we see the return of Betty and Robin Thorogood from Crown of Lights – this, I assume, another indication that The Magus of Hay is written in the spirit of the earlier novels in the series.

In keeping with this, there are no corrupt councillors or greedy businessmen attempting to turn the English countryside into a Disneyfied version of Ye Olde English Village this time around, but instead we get an old man drowning and a policewoman disappearing, both cases possibly involving murder, and possibly connected in some way. All of this takes place in around the town of Hay, famous for its used bookstores and whose atmosphere Rickman evokes with the sure hand one has come to be used from him, painting a colourful picture of a a place combining tourist trap, genuine love for books and general British quirkiness. Although the author’s fondness for the town and its eccentric inhabitants shine through clearly, The Magus of Hay is not an idyllic book, in fact it might very well be the most gruesome of all the “Merrily Watkins” novels so far, some scenes spilling over into outright horror.

While not my favourite novel in the series (personally, I’d have wished for more Jane and Lol, and even more on the town of Hay and its cast of used books salesmen), I still thought The Magus of Hay was an enjoyable read and I’m finding myself feeling somewhat melancholy at having reached the (for now) end of the series. Hopefully there’ll be more in the future, and in the meantime I suppose I should take a look at Phil Rickman’s other novels… show less

In my opinion, there's no such thing as a BAD Merrily Watkins novel. It's one of the very best mystery series on the market. But I actually thought this installment was better and more interesting than most. Less cozy mystery and more police procedural, it moves faster than most of them, although there are fewer personal details of Merrily's life, which I can imagine some fans might miss. Personally, even though it's a little different, I really enjoyed it.

Might be I'm getting a trifle tired of this series, but this one seemed a little lackluster. I have a feeling the world of Merrily is due for a major overhaul: Rickman breaks with the characters he's been using as types and alternative viewpoints in the last several novels, but he doesn't seem to have quite settled on how he's going to move forward. The next one, I think, will either rejuvinate or close the series.

Merrily, on her own as Lol is on tour and Jane and Eirion are away on an archaeological dig, is supposed to be on holiday. Frannie Bliss is back on the job following the events at the end of The Secrets of Pain, even more damaged and dangerous than before. Bliss is investigating the mysterious death of 93 year old David Hambling in Cusop, on the English side of the Wye.

It seems that Hambling is a magician, so he calls in Merrily to help him investigate and understand Hambling’s life. They discover that Hambling had moved and changed his name, as he’d written a best seller about the Nazi’s and the occult and as a result may have attracted unwanted followers from amongst the neo-Nazi’s.

Merrily is forced to consult her nemesis, show more Athena White and the trail leads them to Hay. With Ethel and Gomer only making cameo appearances its good that Athena is not the only returning character as at Hay Merrily encounters characters from A Crown of Lights, Gwyn Arthur Jones, now retired and running a bookshop and Betty and Robin Thorogood who are in the process of opening their own pagan bookshop and are preoccupied with trying to deal with a darkness within their shop, which may or may not be connected to Hambling.

This is one of the darkest books in the series, but also possibly the best. show less

Despite the subject matter of these stories - religion, demons, evil, mysticism - which were not immediately obviously to my taste, they were always wedded into something a bit more tangible like Gomer and the daughter. Once the daughter had grown up and the love interest had pretty much resolved, this outing seemed a bit more pedestrian, which lead me to me giving up on it. I do hope the series recovers because I really enjoyed the earlier episodes.