The Remains of an Altar

Synopsis

Merrily Watkins, parish priest, single mum and Deliverance consultant to the Diocese of Hereford, heads for the Malvern Hills in the latest installment of Phil Rickman's acclaimed series of 'first class thrillers with a difference' ("The Guardian"). In 1934, the dying composer Edward Elgar feebly whistled to a friend the theme from his Cello Concerto and said, 'If ever you're walking on the Malvern Hills and hear that, don't be frightened. It's only me.' Over seventy years later, Merrily is called in to investigate an alleged paranormal dimension to a spate of road accidents in the Malvern village of Wychehill, where she discovers new tensions in Elgar's countryside. The proposed take-over of a local pub by a nightclub owner with a criminal reputation has become the battle-ground between the defenders of Olde Englande and the hard-men of drug culture - with extreme and sinister elements on both sides. And as the local choral society prepares to stage an open-air performance of Elgar's Caractacus on the Iron Age hillfort known as British Camp, the deaths begin...