[Merrily Watkins 12.50] • The House of Susan Lulham

THE FIRST EVER MERRILY WATKINS SHORT STORY – NOW EXPANDED INTO THE FULL STORY

A new husband and a new house.

Just as well, because Zoe doesn't like old.

Back in the 1960s, this house was built to look ultra-modern, with lots of glass and sharp angles. And it was going cheap, perhaps because of the self-inflicted death of a previous owner - notoriously bloody and prolonged.

But Zoe didn't know that. And if her husband Jonathan knew, he kept very quiet.

How is Merrily Watkins, diocesan exorcist for Hereford, to know what’s behind Zoe’s claim that the late Susan Lulham is still in residence?

Sceptical neighbours seem unlikely to help, and fresh blood will decorate the pristine white walls of the New House before its secret history begins, at last, to leak out.

A stunning addition to Phil Rickman’s bestselling 12-volume Merrily Watkins series – currently being filmed by ITV Drama for broadcast in 2015. This short novel, exploring the problems of exorcism in a secular age, is volume twelve and a half in the series.