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Who is stalking Seffi Callard, the world’s most fashionable spiritualist medium – now a paranoid recluse at her father’s Cotswold home? Her old mentor Marcus Bacton, editor of an ailing journal of the paranormal, sends his assistant Grayle Underhill to try to establish the truth, unaware that he’s thrusting them both into a nightmare.
Leo Defford doesn't believe in ghosts. But as the head of an independent production company, he does believe in high-impact TV. Defford hires journalist Grayle Underhill to research the history of Knap Hall, a one-time Tudor farmhouse that became the ultimate luxury guest house...until tragedy put it back on the market. Its recent history isn't conducive to a quick sale, but Defford isn't interested in keeping Knap Hall for longer than it takes to make a reality TV show that will run night after night....
A paradise parish of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses, and a huge, haunted vicarage were not what the Revd Merrily Watkins ever had in mind. Nor had she wanted to walk into a local dispute over a play about a curious 17th century cleric accused of witchcraft, a story that certain old-established families would rather remained in obscurity. But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets.
For 400 years, the curfew bell has tolled nightly from the church tower of the small country town, Crybbe's only defence against the evil rising unbidden in its haunted streets. Radio reporter Fay Morrison came to Crybbe because she had no choice. Millionaire music tycoon Max Goff came because there was nothing left to conquer, except the power of the spirit. But he knew nothing of the town's legacy of dark magic - and nobody felt like telling him....
In the ruins of a haunted medieval abbey, four musicians hope to tap into the site's dark history. The experience almost destroys them.
Though dead for two millennia, he remains perfectly preserved in black peat. The Man in the Moss is one of the most fascinating finds of the century. But, for the isolated Pennine community of Bridelow, his removal is a sinister sign. A danger to the ancient spiritual tradition maintained, curiously, by the Mothers' Union. In the weeks approaching Samhain - the Celtic feast of the dead - tragedy strikes again in Bridelow.
Who is stalking Seffi Callard, the world’s most fashionable spiritualist medium – now a paranoid recluse at her father’s Cotswold home? Her old mentor Marcus Bacton, editor of an ailing journal of the paranormal, sends his assistant Grayle Underhill to try to establish the truth, unaware that he’s thrusting them both into a nightmare.
Leo Defford doesn't believe in ghosts. But as the head of an independent production company, he does believe in high-impact TV. Defford hires journalist Grayle Underhill to research the history of Knap Hall, a one-time Tudor farmhouse that became the ultimate luxury guest house...until tragedy put it back on the market. Its recent history isn't conducive to a quick sale, but Defford isn't interested in keeping Knap Hall for longer than it takes to make a reality TV show that will run night after night....
A paradise parish of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses, and a huge, haunted vicarage were not what the Revd Merrily Watkins ever had in mind. Nor had she wanted to walk into a local dispute over a play about a curious 17th century cleric accused of witchcraft, a story that certain old-established families would rather remained in obscurity. But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets.
For 400 years, the curfew bell has tolled nightly from the church tower of the small country town, Crybbe's only defence against the evil rising unbidden in its haunted streets. Radio reporter Fay Morrison came to Crybbe because she had no choice. Millionaire music tycoon Max Goff came because there was nothing left to conquer, except the power of the spirit. But he knew nothing of the town's legacy of dark magic - and nobody felt like telling him....
In the ruins of a haunted medieval abbey, four musicians hope to tap into the site's dark history. The experience almost destroys them.
Though dead for two millennia, he remains perfectly preserved in black peat. The Man in the Moss is one of the most fascinating finds of the century. But, for the isolated Pennine community of Bridelow, his removal is a sinister sign. A danger to the ancient spiritual tradition maintained, curiously, by the Mothers' Union. In the weeks approaching Samhain - the Celtic feast of the dead - tragedy strikes again in Bridelow.
Glastonbury, legendary resting place of the Holy Grail, is a mysterious and haunting town. But when plump, dizzy Diane Ffitch returns home, it's with a sense of deep unease - and not only about her aristocratic family's reaction to her broken engagement and her New Age companions. Plans for a new motorway have intensified the old bitterness between the local people and the 'pilgrims', so already the sacred air is soured.
Corpse candles. Phantom funerals. The bird of death. It was insidious.... For Bethan, the schoolteacher, the old superstitions woven into the social fabric of her West Wales village are primitive and distasteful. Which is why she's pleased to welcome the sophisticated newcomers: London journalist Giles Freeman and his wife, Claire. Surely they'll let in some fresh air.
Alastair Cunningham wakes up in hospital with almost total amnesia. But he knows that something terrible happened in his past, something that haunts him still. A young family friend, Clemence, is called in to help rekindle his memory. Retreating with Alastair to his remote cottage, Clemence finds a peculiar manuscript hidden away from prying eyes. Reading the prologue, she discovers a murder by someone very much like a young Alastair. The victim? Clemence's grandmother, Sophie.
One frozen January morning at 5am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason. Wallander's life is a shambles. His wife has left him, his daughter refuses to speak to him, and even his ageing father barely tolerates him.
St Benjamin's Medical School is the greatest of its kind, any death occurring within its walls would have created ripples within the academic world, but the death of Nikki Exner is far from being ordinary. Raped, and then grotesquely executed, her theatrical murder horrifies everyone. John Eisenmenger, a former forensic pathologist, finds himself dragged unwillingly into the case. Teaming up with solicitor Helena Flemming, Eisenmenger sets out to discover what really did happen to Nikki Exner.
What happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher at the École Nationale d’Administration, who trained some of France’s best and brightest as future prime ministers and presidents, vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. This ten-year-old mystery inspires a bet—one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse, France, instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland, can ill afford to lose.
One thousand years ago: An Icelandic warrior returns from battle, bearing a ring cut from the right hand of his foe. Seventy years ago: An Oxford professor, working from a secret source, creates the 20th century’s most pervasive legend. The professor’s name? John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Six hours ago: An expert on Old Icelandic literature, Agnar Haraldsson, is murdered. Everything is connected, but to discover how, Detective Magnus Jonson must venture where the shadows lie….
It is 1560, and Elizabeth Tudor has been on the throne for a year. Dr John Dee is her astrologer and consultant in the hidden arts…a controversial appointment in these days of superstition. Now the bookish Dee has been sent to Glastonbury to find the missing bones of King Arthur. With him is his Robert Dudley, a wild card…and possibly the Queen’s secret lover. The town is still mourning the gruesome execution of its abbot, Richard Whiting. But why was he killed?
There is a killer loose on the streets of London, one that evades security cameras, is not held by locks, and savagely mutilates his victims. When the murderer switches from unknown prostitutes to Julie Longmuir, a beautiful actress at the height of her success, no woman feels safe. As the press begin to draw uncomfortable comparisons with Jack the Ripper, Jane Sullivan, heading up the police investigation, grudgingly has to agree.
Billionaire Saul Abercrombie owns a vast tract of land on the Pembrokeshire coast. By restoring the original forest that covered the area before medieval times, he believes he will rekindle the spirits of ancient folklore. But the re-planting of the forest will revive an altogether darker and more dangerous entity - and young arboreal expert Tom Curtis will find himself engaging in an epic, ancient battle between good and evil. A battle in which there can be only one survivor.
When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, Ruth Galloway lectures at the University of North Norfolk. She lives happily alone in a remote place called Saltmarsh overlooking the North Sea and, for company; she has her cats Flint and Sparky, and Radio 4. When a child's bones are found in the marshes near an ancient site that Ruth worked on ten years earlier, Ruth is asked to date them.
Ruby is the most violently disturbed patient ever admitted to Drummersgate Asylum, high on the bleak moors of northern England. With no improvement after two years, Dr. Jack McGowan finally decides to take a risk and hypnotizes her - with terrifying consequences. A horrific dark force is now unleashed on the entire medical team, as each in turn attempts to unlock Ruby's shocking and sinister past. Who is this girl? And how did she manage to survive such unimaginable evil?
When Maiden is revived in hospital after dying in a hit and run incident, his memories are not the familiar ones of bright lights and angelic music, only of a cold, harsh place he has no wish to revisit...ever.
But his experience means that Bobby Maiden may be the only person who can reach The Green Man, a serial murderer who returns to stone circles and burial mounds in the belief that he is defending Britain’s sacred heritage.
Meanwhile, New Age journalist Grayle Underhill arrives from New York to search for her sister. The bloody trail leads to a remote village on the Welsh Border...and to people who know there are more crimes in heaven and earth...
As always Phil Rickman writes a story which holds the reader from the first paragraph ...Sean Barrett ' s narration is equally superb -a perfect match . highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Lots of research gone into this book. Makes for a good read. Puts a new light on standing stone and people's belief.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
If you could sum up The Cold Calling in three words, what would they be?
Undeniably Phil Rickman
What did you like best about this story?
Loved it all, the style, the locations, the characters and of course the story. This is much more like Mr Rickman's pre Merrily books. Don't get me wrong, I love The Merrily series but I first discovered Phil Rickman through titles like Crybbe, December etc and welcome a return to a more overtly supernatural story.
What does Seán Barrett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
Sean Barrett seems to have a great understanding of Phil Rickman's Characters and performs them just as I had imagined them. Try Curfew and December, also the 2 Doctor Dee books.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I would have loved to but had to listen to it on my daily commute to London, so I got about 2 hours a day which made the daily crush on trains more than endurable.
Any additional comments?
Yes, Please Audible can we have the other Will Kingdom title Mean Spirirt which I understand has many of the same charcters. Also can we have the other older Phil Rickman Titles, The Man in The Moss, The Chalice, Candelnight etc all read by Sean Barratt please! And the missing Merrily Watkins books would be nice.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
I listened to all in this series in the wrong order. Not deliberately but not realising they were a series until it was too late. I firmly believe it's the sign of a good series if each book can stand alone .. the books in this series can. The Cold Calling is the best of all of them. Touching on the supernatural but not relying on it to bring suspense to a jolly good yarn. Sindy is my favourite character, a difficult group of traits to get right but he/ she is a truly lovely character and an unusual hero or is it heroine?
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This is the first of the two DI Bobby Maiden books published by Phil Rickman under the name Will Kingdom in the 1990's. I bought and read them in paperback ages ago but was really looking forward to the audio version that has been available in the UK for a couple of years at least. I HATE geo-restrictions. There are in fact a lot of books on the UK site that the authors would have sold to me if it were not for geo-restrictions.
DI Maiden is a reluctant but successful detective, the son of a hard bitten old fashioned copper. He dies after being involved in a car wreck and is brought back to life by the determination of Sister Anderson, a nurse who knew him when he was a young constable.
Another strand of the story involves Marcus Bacton, former schoolmaster and the owner and editor of The Phenomenologist, an old fashioned magazine concentrating on occult knowledge and events, a Celtic Shaman/aging actor and ventriloquist, and a popular television personality/scholar. At the center of this is a tor, an ancient sacred site, which some would hold was sacred to death, others would hold as sacred to life and healing.
Then from America, a New Age columnist comes looking for her sister who was involved with a dream project run by the television personality.
Not as compelling as the Merrily Watkins books, but quite interesting with a host of unique characters. Creepily scary.
Sean Barrett is not as good as Emma Powell who narrates the Merrily books. Powell does a far better American accent than Barrett. Fortunately Barrett pretty much forgets the flat, nasal American accent he gives Grayle in the beginning.
Now let's have the rest including The Man in the Moss and the second DI Maiden book.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
Would you consider the audio edition of The Cold Calling to be better than the print version?
The copy editor needed to use his pencil more drastically. The story was excellent, and excellently written, but could have been cut drastically w/out any ill effect.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Would you consider the audio edition of The Cold Calling to be better than the print version?
You really can't lose with either.
Who was your favorite character and why?
There are too many to choose just one. Kingdom gives them equal time to develop and display their fears, quirks, and personalities.
What does Seán Barrett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Sean Barrett did very well lapsing from English, Welsh, and Scottish dialects.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
There were several: the hospital not so touching scene between father and son, the confrontation between Marcus and the hit men, and the final revelation of the identity of the woman under the street light.
Any additional comments?
Kingdom (Phil Rickman) displays his incredible talent as a first rate writer and his ability to scare his reader witless without resorting to a never ending stream of gore. He subtly weaves a complicated mix of compelling character development with an equally ingenious presentation of the plot. Anyone with a love of the borderland between Wales and England will enjoy the tapestry of past and present his prose paints.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I love atmospheric mysteries set in the British countryside. Phil Rickman does them quite well. In this book, the plot follows a killer who believes he has a connection to England's pre-Christian era. The elements of resentment, culture and the danger of getting surrounded by darkness keep the reader interested. I look forward to Rickman's other books.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
great characters kept my interest throughout. the history very fasinating. I have read and listen to other books by author enjoyed all of them
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
In a repeated experience, the information regarding the content of this book was acutely misleading and inaccurate. The very least a user of any Library, user of this service, potential customer has to be some authenticity when they are lead to use/buy.
Would you ever listen to anything by Will Kingdom again?
Never. Such extended nonsense cannot be risked again.
Have you listened to any of Seán Barrett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Sean Barrett's performance remains as authentic as possible under difficult, embarrassing circumstances. How awful in comparison to the intelligent and serious novels I have had the privilege of listening him read before.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Cold Calling?
I only persisted because I hoped it might get better and I had returned more books than I am allotted per 6 months.
Any additional comments?
The astonishing amount of misrepresented novels available nowadays still stuns poor besieged readers. Accurate synopsis of a text is all that can help a reader choose.
2 of 14 people found this review helpful