The Secrets of Pain

· Merrily Watkins Book 11 · Bolinda · Narrated by Emma Powell
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16 hr 46 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

The elite warriors of the Hereford-based SAS know all about pain and the enduring of it. Syd Spicer, ex-SAS trooper, has found himself back in the Regiment – this time as its chaplain, responsible for the spiritual welfare of the hardest men in or out of uniform. Faced with a case which would normally be passed discreetly to Hereford diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins, Spicer is forced, for security reasons, to try and handle it himself and is coming close to a breakdown. Meanwhile, the scattered communities along the Welsh border have their own crisis. With recession biting deep, urban crime has spilled into the countryside and old barbaric evils are revived. When a wealthy landowner is hacked to death in his own farmyard, the senior investigating officer, DI Frannie Bliss is caught in the backlash, his private life in danger of exposure. With the framework of her own world beginning to crack, Merrily is persuaded to venture into areas where neither a priest nor a woman is welcome to unearth secrets linked with the border's pagan past. Secrets which she knows can never be disclosed.

About the author

Phil Rickman is the author of the Merrily Watkins mysteries, the new John Dee series and several novels of the paranormal, including two for children under the name Thom Madley. He’s still trying to write the sometimes-transcendental thriller (an all-the-time transcendental thriller would be bloody unreadable, so it’s a balancing act). Born in Lancashire, he’s spent most of his adult life in Wales and the Border country, where he won a couple of awards for his work as a BBC radio and TV news reporter. First novel, Candlenight (1991) was discovered by the novelist and fiction-editor Alice Thomas Ellis and was followed by four other stand-alone ghost stories before the Merrily Watkins series began with The Wine of Angels. Phil lives near Hay-on-Wye with his wife and editor, Carol – they met as journalists on the same paper – and a bunch of animals. He writes and presents the book programme Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales.

Emma Powell is an experienced voiceover artist who has performed for some of the world's most renowned theater companies, including RSC, Almeida, and the National Theatre. She has voiced characters for BBC radio dramas as well as countless audiobooks, corporate projects, games and ads. In 2016 one of her audiobooks, Without a Trace by Lesley Pearce, was the most borrowed audiobook from British libraries, beating Harry Potter into second and third place. She voices the Phil Rickman thrillers, the fantasy Graceling Trilogy, and countless other novels.

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