The lamp of the wicked, paperback/phil rickman

In Merrilys fifth outing, a serial killer appears to be on the loose and Merrily has her doubts about the detective in charge of the case After half a century of decay, the village of Underhowle looked to be on the brink of a new prosperity.

Now, instead, it seems destined for notoriety as the home of a psychotic serial killer.

DI Francis Bliss, of Hereford CID, is convinced he knows where the bodies are buried.

But Merrily Watkins, called in to conduct a controversial funeral, wonders if Bliss isnt blinkered by personal ambition.

And are the Underhowle deaths really linked to perhaps the most sickening killings in British criminal history?.