'...standing in that orchard, covered with that poor old bloke’s blood, that was when I decided to go for it. I clearly remember thinking that nothing so immediate and so utterly shocking ever happened quite that close to me in Liverpool. That maybe, in some ways, this village could actually be the sharp end. I thought, am I going to wash off his blood and walk away?’ [loc. 339]
Set in the charming and picturesque Herefordshire village of Ledwardine, and featuring single mother Merrily Watkins and her teenaged daughter Jane as they arrive in the village and adjust to local life, this -- the first in the Merrily Watkins series -- has all the ingredients of a cosy mystery. It also features apples, poetry, the Church, and a long-standing tradition of violence, prejudice and paganism.
Merrily Watkins decides to take up the post of Ledwardine's vicar after witnessing the suicide of an elderly local during a reinvented apple orchard ritual. She quickly discovers that beneath the picture-postcard calm of the village lurk a number of nasties, including the great old families of Bull-Davies and Powell; the nouveau-riche incomers, eager to preserve and wallow in the olde-worlde atmosphere; the three-hundred-year old legend of a local priest who was found hanging in the orchard after reports of depravity; and the teenaged oiks who leer and jeer at Jane and her new friend Colette. Oh, and Merrily is convinced that the vicarage is haunted... To counter those unpleasantnesses, there are more benign elements: Lol Robinson, washed-up rock star and devotee of iconic musician Nick Drake; Gomer, a dyed-in-the-wool yokel with a penchant for farm machinery; and Lucy Devenish, who may just be an eccentric old lady.
There's violence and murder, but it's not the focus: this is a novel about Merrily and the village learning to rub along together, and about Jane's reaction to some very unChristian experiences, and about the local legend of priest Wil Williams, who may have been hounded to death by ancestors of the contemporary villagers. There are all manner of prejudices, including misogyny, homophobia, class conflict, and a fierce grip on tradition ('we always fetches ’em back yere'), and Merrily's faith is tested in several ways.
I've owned this for over a decade! And once I read it, I was very much inclined to dive into the whole series: it reminds me, in ambience though not content, of ELizabeth Pewsey's delightful Mountjoy series (2005 review, 2014 review). Merrily and Jane are splendid characters, and the setting, with its blend of paganism and Christianity -- plus a nice old pub, an unsettling orchard, et cetera -- is beguiling.
For Shop Your Shelves Bingo, Summer 2023: purchased 13 APR 2012, prompt 'In A Series'.
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