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Merrily Watkins #16
The Echo of Crows
Welcome to the River a place of poetry, historic obsession... and occult murder.
Nestled deep in the Black Mountains, the village of Longtown is haunted by the double suicide of a lottery winner and his wife.
A rich Londoner, unaware of the town's dark history, buys the dead man's cottage in the hopes of refurbishing it...then begins to fall victim to a host of bad luck.
Luckily DS David Vaynor and Merrily Watkins - parish priest, single mum and renowned demon exorcist - are on the case.
Nestled deep in the Black Mountains, the village of Longtown is haunted by the double suicide of a lottery winner and his wife.
A rich Londoner, unaware of the town's dark history, buys the dead man's cottage in the hopes of refurbishing it...then begins to fall victim to a host of bad luck.
Luckily DS David Vaynor and Merrily Watkins - parish priest, single mum and renowned demon exorcist - are on the case.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published November 6, 2025
107 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Phil Rickman
58 books805 followersPhil Rickman, also known under the pen names Thom Madley and Will Kingdom, was a British author of supernatural and mystery novels.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 7, 2025
The description of the plot shown here is incorrect: I suspect it was written before the book was released. I’m a huge fan of Phil’s writing: I enjoyed this book and I’m so sad that there won’t be another. As always there’s a riveting story set around the welsh borders with a powerful sense of place. There’s the usual cast of beloved characters. But in truth this book does read in part like a first draft that had Phil been in better health when writing it, would have no doubt been refined. There are also some errors that a proofreader should have corrected before publication. That said, I’m grateful the book was released posthumously: Phil’s writing has given me much pleasure over the years. I’ll miss him.
November 10, 2025
I started this on release day in the UK. Of course, given the authors death, I am not only saddened to read it, but also worry whether it was completely finished or not. The series as a whole is excellent, although the internal time line gets mixed up with the previous novel bring the setting to 2019/20 whereas previous to that the unspoken date would appear to be some years earlier. The subject matter is somewhat timeless, but the last few books were set around 2015 (Vapes replace cigarettes). This one seems to be set after 2022. The series covers a time period of around 5 years in total, but would really need to be longer than that I think. This seems to be driven by Phil wanting to keep M's daughter Jane a key character rather than have her go to University. The current book continues this trend.
Reading the first few chapters, the written language feels slightly "off". I'm not sure why, but it's perhaps because I haven't reread any of the previous books since before 2022 (Fever of the world). The Cathedral/diocese sub plot line having got a bit stuck in 2017's All of a winters night. I'm well into the novel and regardless of my initial impression, I'm right back at home in the welsh marches.
I'm very glad and happy we got this book (novella ?). I enjoyed reading it and the story is complete.
However, I find it hard to believe that this is what it was meant to be. I was getting well in to the book, just as the Police investigation of kicking off and the prospect of understanding the link with the Crows, the Black Mountains and the murdered welsh king and then I glanced down at my kindle 87 % complete. The scenes that follow rapidly bring to story to a conclusion reveal a lot of the mystery, but - for me at least - just wasn't convincing. It felt like pre-written material and early versions of later scenes have been compiled to produce a complete story, but lacking the middle half that makes really good mysteries great. Perhaps it was intended as a novella (Phil had been seriously ill recently), but it would still have needed more work to complete it. I believe that death robbed both Phil of his life and a potentially great story.
Perhaps not a fitting end, but still a good end for these characters and their parent. RIP Phil.
Reading the first few chapters, the written language feels slightly "off". I'm not sure why, but it's perhaps because I haven't reread any of the previous books since before 2022 (Fever of the world). The Cathedral/diocese sub plot line having got a bit stuck in 2017's All of a winters night. I'm well into the novel and regardless of my initial impression, I'm right back at home in the welsh marches.
I'm very glad and happy we got this book (novella ?). I enjoyed reading it and the story is complete.
However, I find it hard to believe that this is what it was meant to be. I was getting well in to the book, just as the Police investigation of kicking off and the prospect of understanding the link with the Crows, the Black Mountains and the murdered welsh king and then I glanced down at my kindle 87 % complete. The scenes that follow rapidly bring to story to a conclusion reveal a lot of the mystery, but - for me at least - just wasn't convincing. It felt like pre-written material and early versions of later scenes have been compiled to produce a complete story, but lacking the middle half that makes really good mysteries great. Perhaps it was intended as a novella (Phil had been seriously ill recently), but it would still have needed more work to complete it. I believe that death robbed both Phil of his life and a potentially great story.
Perhaps not a fitting end, but still a good end for these characters and their parent. RIP Phil.
December 8, 2025
It was bittersweet reading this, knowing it was the last one in the series. It was certainly an improvement on the last one, but did feel a little rushed, and sketchy. There wasn't the usual complexity and richness of themes and narrative threads, but I'm aware that the author wasn't in good health when he wrote it. To be honest, anything by this author is head and shoulders above most other books. I only recently found out that Phil Rickman died last year, so I now intend to reread most of the Merrily Watkins books. He will be greatly missed, and with this particular series he created something wonderfully evocative and unique.
November 16, 2025
I devoured this, the 16th book in the Merrily Watkins series, within a few days of buying it and loved it. I admit I hardly wanted to read to the end because, as someone who has read through the entire series in order as the books came out, it felt so sad to know this will be the last. But it is a worthy end; and I was happy to read how the characters’ trajectory was resolved. I loved the way in which the story was brought to a conclusion, and it had a beautiful sense of continuance.
To all those of us who have followed the Merrily – Lol relationship, along with the volatile nature of Merrily’s work, and her relationship with her unpredictable daughter Jane, not to mention various nefarious bishops, police officers, criminals, pagans, folklorists, occultists and haunted souls along the way, always supported by Huw, Gomer, Sophie and so many others, this felt an appropriate resolution to me.
As a writer, when I consider all contemporary novels, this series has been the one I most wish I’d written myself; and I have never known another author handle Christianity, paganism, folklore and the paranormal, and the interface between them, with such subtlety, insight and nuance.
To all those of us who have followed the Merrily – Lol relationship, along with the volatile nature of Merrily’s work, and her relationship with her unpredictable daughter Jane, not to mention various nefarious bishops, police officers, criminals, pagans, folklorists, occultists and haunted souls along the way, always supported by Huw, Gomer, Sophie and so many others, this felt an appropriate resolution to me.
As a writer, when I consider all contemporary novels, this series has been the one I most wish I’d written myself; and I have never known another author handle Christianity, paganism, folklore and the paranormal, and the interface between them, with such subtlety, insight and nuance.
December 15, 2025
3.5
I was so surprised to seeing this novel here these last months. As the author passed away last year,I believed it would have been the end of one of my favorite series ever written .
The Bad : It's hard to get into this story at first. The first part of this novel feels like a kind of draft. the prose is off. Also, 220 pages is not enough to do this story justice. There was enough material for an old fashioned 400 plus page Merrily novel. It misses Rickman's subtle story weaving and plot developments.
The Good. It's better than Fever of the world, and , most important , the series is now officially wrapped up with a decent ending.
Rickman will always be one of my favorite authors. Waiting for the new Merrily novel has been part of my life for almost twenty years by now. Even though I'm Dutch, and I never even visited this part of the U.K ( the Welsh /English Border, Offa dyke, Herefordshire , etc ) I probably know more about that part of the world trough Rickman novels , than a lot regions in my own country ;)
I have wanted to visit Herefordshire for a while now , but due to Brexit, Covid, this, that and the other it somehow never happend. I hope to visit this part of Britain in the near future.
I was so surprised to seeing this novel here these last months. As the author passed away last year,I believed it would have been the end of one of my favorite series ever written .
The Bad : It's hard to get into this story at first. The first part of this novel feels like a kind of draft. the prose is off. Also, 220 pages is not enough to do this story justice. There was enough material for an old fashioned 400 plus page Merrily novel. It misses Rickman's subtle story weaving and plot developments.
The Good. It's better than Fever of the world, and , most important , the series is now officially wrapped up with a decent ending.
Rickman will always be one of my favorite authors. Waiting for the new Merrily novel has been part of my life for almost twenty years by now. Even though I'm Dutch, and I never even visited this part of the U.K ( the Welsh /English Border, Offa dyke, Herefordshire , etc ) I probably know more about that part of the world trough Rickman novels , than a lot regions in my own country ;)
I have wanted to visit Herefordshire for a while now , but due to Brexit, Covid, this, that and the other it somehow never happend. I hope to visit this part of Britain in the near future.
November 18, 2025
I am sad that this is the last ever Merrily Watkins. It is much shorter than usual and is strangely written in large print font, however it brings together all the ingredients of plot, characters and of course the supernatural into a satisfying story. I also love the focus on specific areas of Herefordshire and the Welsh Borders. As this is published posthumously it is definitely the end but everything draws together in a satisfying way at the end.
November 8, 2025
loved it
A fitting final novel in the Merrily Watkins series. It’s not as dark as some of them have been, and the crime was not as complicated to solve, but it was a great read. I read it in one day as I didn’t want to put it down. All the old favourite characters played a part in the story.
A fitting final novel in the Merrily Watkins series. It’s not as dark as some of them have been, and the crime was not as complicated to solve, but it was a great read. I read it in one day as I didn’t want to put it down. All the old favourite characters played a part in the story.
November 15, 2025
Shorter than many of the series, almost feels like the author was hurrying to complete this before he died. Similarly he has used this book to complete the story of many of the ongoing ensemble of characters. A fitting end to the series. I have read them all and now want to start again from the beginning.
November 23, 2025
So sorry that this is the last Merrily Watkins novel, and also that I have to agree with other reviewers here that it has an unfinished feel. I can understand completely why this should be, so don’t want to be unduly critical. There were definitely some ‘rough edges’ - not too much of a spoiler to wonder how someone gets shot at pretty much point blank range without their killer having a few problems getting rid of the traces without anyone noticing? Also the typeface is very large…almost Large Print…to bulk out the text? Also a feeling at the end that storylines are being tied up, again completely understandable in the circumstances.
I shall probably return to the earlier books in the series as compensation, and the non-Merrily novels that are as yet unread.
I shall probably return to the earlier books in the series as compensation, and the non-Merrily novels that are as yet unread.
November 13, 2025
Just perfect. What an end to my favourite series of books. Thankyou Phil. What a legacy.
November 6, 2025
The late Phil Rickman's genius was to blend intriguing crime mysteries with with events that tapped into our sense of unease about the Unexplained, and I use the upper case with good reason. Here, in the final Merrily Watkins novel,a young multi million pound lottery winner is found shot dead in a field beside his Purdy shotgun, but there is more - so much more- going on.
I don't know if Phil was religious, but he certainly knew so much about religion. Here, veteran exorcist Huw Owen, driven to distraction by the anaemic, lanyard-wearing leadership of the corporate Church of England, is about to throw in the towel, until he is distracted by a former colleague's description of a frightening experience in the church at Clodock, allegedly built on the tomb of a murdered Dark Ages king, Clydawg. He visits his former mentee, Rev Merrily Watkins, vicar of Leintwardine, and responsible for exorcism in the diocese of Hereford. Naturally, given the state of the church's corporate image, she is formally titled 'Deliverance Consultant'
Longstanding readers of the series will know that the churches and chapels of Rickman's border region are often deeply sinister places with tangible links to a pagan past, for example the celebrated carvings at St Mary and David church in Kilpeck, which featured prominently in All of a Winter's Night.
The lottery winner - Eddy Davies - had bought a local farm, and had renovated the collection of neglected buildings. In one lived a young woman called Autumn Wise, whose parents had not long since been killed in an horrific car crash. We learn that Autumn is obsessed with the past and, in particular, the part played in folklore by Corvus Carone.
On a more practical and immediate level, when the police arrived at the farm following the discovery of Eddy's body, Autumn was found in the farmhouse, cradling a shotgun. Autumn's cottage was known as The Old Dairy, and it was there, centuries earlier that a man poisoned his wife in order to be with his young lover. The killer and his girlfriend were subsequently hanged outside Hereford gaol.
Across the series, which began in 1998 with The Wine of Angels, Merrily has tended not to see spirits or apparitions, but rather senses them, and believes that other people can see them. Here, when she visits The Old Dairy she actually witnesses something which shakes her to the core. The killer of Eddy Davis is eventually unmasked, but with little intervention in this case from spiritual forces. Rather, it is the intuition and hard work of the police in Hereford that close the case.
Phil Rickman died on 29th October 2024, therefore this is valete to what we might call the Merrily Watkins repertory company. There will be no more Gomer Parry, the aged digger driver, who acted like a one-man Greek Chorus throughout the series; no more Frannie Bliss the canny Scouse copper from Hereford; no more of Merrily's quixotic daughter Jane, and her complex relationship with boyfriend Eiron; and no more Lol Robinson, the tortured singer songwriter and Merrily's not-so-secret boyfriend. The Echo of Crows is a magnificent end to a much-loved series, and will be published by Corvus on 6th November.
I don't know if Phil was religious, but he certainly knew so much about religion. Here, veteran exorcist Huw Owen, driven to distraction by the anaemic, lanyard-wearing leadership of the corporate Church of England, is about to throw in the towel, until he is distracted by a former colleague's description of a frightening experience in the church at Clodock, allegedly built on the tomb of a murdered Dark Ages king, Clydawg. He visits his former mentee, Rev Merrily Watkins, vicar of Leintwardine, and responsible for exorcism in the diocese of Hereford. Naturally, given the state of the church's corporate image, she is formally titled 'Deliverance Consultant'
Longstanding readers of the series will know that the churches and chapels of Rickman's border region are often deeply sinister places with tangible links to a pagan past, for example the celebrated carvings at St Mary and David church in Kilpeck, which featured prominently in All of a Winter's Night.
The lottery winner - Eddy Davies - had bought a local farm, and had renovated the collection of neglected buildings. In one lived a young woman called Autumn Wise, whose parents had not long since been killed in an horrific car crash. We learn that Autumn is obsessed with the past and, in particular, the part played in folklore by Corvus Carone.
On a more practical and immediate level, when the police arrived at the farm following the discovery of Eddy's body, Autumn was found in the farmhouse, cradling a shotgun. Autumn's cottage was known as The Old Dairy, and it was there, centuries earlier that a man poisoned his wife in order to be with his young lover. The killer and his girlfriend were subsequently hanged outside Hereford gaol.
Across the series, which began in 1998 with The Wine of Angels, Merrily has tended not to see spirits or apparitions, but rather senses them, and believes that other people can see them. Here, when she visits The Old Dairy she actually witnesses something which shakes her to the core. The killer of Eddy Davis is eventually unmasked, but with little intervention in this case from spiritual forces. Rather, it is the intuition and hard work of the police in Hereford that close the case.
Phil Rickman died on 29th October 2024, therefore this is valete to what we might call the Merrily Watkins repertory company. There will be no more Gomer Parry, the aged digger driver, who acted like a one-man Greek Chorus throughout the series; no more Frannie Bliss the canny Scouse copper from Hereford; no more of Merrily's quixotic daughter Jane, and her complex relationship with boyfriend Eiron; and no more Lol Robinson, the tortured singer songwriter and Merrily's not-so-secret boyfriend. The Echo of Crows is a magnificent end to a much-loved series, and will be published by Corvus on 6th November.
November 15, 2025
I am a big fan of the whole series of these books and the author Phil Rickman
A brilliant book which carries on the lives of Merrily Watkins a vicarage deliverance exorcist in rural Herefordshire . This book that’s as the usual characters and as always we have followed their lives throughout the whole series . I adored this book and was very sad at the end ,it was one of those books you didn’t want to end ,as you knew it was the last
Bravo Phil Rickman you will be missed ,and all the wonderful characters you created in these books
A brilliant book which carries on the lives of Merrily Watkins a vicarage deliverance exorcist in rural Herefordshire . This book that’s as the usual characters and as always we have followed their lives throughout the whole series . I adored this book and was very sad at the end ,it was one of those books you didn’t want to end ,as you knew it was the last
Bravo Phil Rickman you will be missed ,and all the wonderful characters you created in these books
November 20, 2025
As a long time fan of the Merrily Watkins series, I’m so sad to come to its end. As others have observed, this is much shorter than a typical Phil Rickman book and therefore it reads more like a reasonably polished first draft. It lacks a lot of the atmospheric mood and setting that the previous books in the series have. But the beloved characters are still here, and clearly Phil did all he could to wrap up their stories for his loyal fans. Glad to have this final entry.
December 4, 2025
This was always going to be bitter sweet, and balancing a desire to race through it with the need to Eeck out the last ever one was always going to be hard. But Phil Rickman books need to be read at pace as the story builds itself that way. Whilst shorter than earlier offerings this was no disappointment. It concludes things nicely without feeling forced and left me with the warm glow that only comes when characters in a series feel like friends. I will miss Merrily and the gang. RIP Phil.
November 24, 2025
I enjoyed the last instalment of the Ledwardine saga, despite the limitations of the book in terms of length and content. The ending felt very pulled together, the loose ends firmly tied off - a competent compromise, all we could have wished for really in view of the circumstances.
Phil Rickman was an excellent writer, a good friend and a decent man, RIP.
Phil Rickman was an excellent writer, a good friend and a decent man, RIP.
November 24, 2025
Perfect ending to a perfect series.
I have loved each and every Merrily book in this series, but none before have actually got me choked up and shedding a tear.
The characters are as believable as if they were based on real people and I can hear their voices resounding in my mind as if I have listened to them.
I have loved each and every Merrily book in this series, but none before have actually got me choked up and shedding a tear.
The characters are as believable as if they were based on real people and I can hear their voices resounding in my mind as if I have listened to them.
November 27, 2025
This sadly is the last novel written by Phil Rickman prior to his death. While not my favourite book in his popular Merrily Watkins series, it is nevertheless a fitting conclusion that resolves some long, lingering issues.
December 23, 2025
Oh no, not the end
I have enjoyed all of the Merrily Watkins books and can't believe this is the end. Knowing this part of the country, the space between England and Wales, I find I want to visit all places mentioned.
I have enjoyed all of the Merrily Watkins books and can't believe this is the end. Knowing this part of the country, the space between England and Wales, I find I want to visit all places mentioned.
December 29, 2024
Author and broadcaster Phil Rickman dies aged 74 - 1 November 2024
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced...
November 10, 2025
As has been noted the description here does not match the book. Each character in this book is like an old friend. They will be missed, as will the Late Phil Rickman.
November 16, 2025
I have to give this, Phil's last book, 5 stars. We will miss all these characters so much.
R.I.P Phil, and thank you so, so much.
R.I.P Phil, and thank you so, so much.
December 22, 2025
Rounds things off nicely in many ways and still manages an eerie mystery at the heart of it. Will miss Merrily and her adventures; definitely won’t miss Jane though
December 3, 2025
I'm not too sure about the rather contrived plot but I felt that this sadly long-awaited book was Phil's way of saying "goodbye" to his favourite characters, and tying up the loose threads in their lives. He has left behind an impressive, unique body of work in a genre he has made his own, and he will be very much missed.
November 12, 2025
Knowing this is the last book in the series, I had planned to read it slowly and savour it, but I started it midday yesterday and have just finished it at 03:40. As always a wonderful read, beautifully written. Ties up some relationship questions raised in previous books.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews