Death-metal rocker Alec Lowell appears to become the world’s perfect “prophet” in screenwriter and author Diane M. Johnson’s (The Schoharie) harrowing thriller, the start of an occult suspense series. Alec–or Alexander the Great, as his fans call him–is shot in the chest during a concert and makes a “miraculous recovery” that splashes him all over the news and moves this proud atheist to reconsider his beliefs. When he learns that he has a son, Jake, with his ex-girlfriend, Alec moves back to rural Wisconsin, committed to ensuring that Jake doesn’t “become disillusioned with [him]” like Alec was with his own dad, a figure with mysteries of his own. But as Alec strives to find higher meaning, getting caught up in a cult-like Satanist movement spurred on by fans of his music, people close to him start dying–and Alec seems unable to find his way out.

Pulsing with blood and pentagrams, murder and faith healing, Alec’s decidedly adult journey is not for the faint of heart but will grip readers with an interest in tense cult tales until the very end. In classic thriller style, Johnson teases out the clues between jolts of action–many believe Alec has been “chosen,” but for what?–until it’s possible to put together an almost-complete puzzle of Alec, his family, his friends, and, most importantly, his enemies, one of whom commands point-of-view passages throughout. The crisp, to-the-point prose, engaging characters, and pacing of revelations will keep the pages turning, though the end proves somewhat anticlimactic, leaving mysteries for the second book.

Alec is caught between a mad Satanic cult and true believers, in a tug-of-war between Satanism and Christianity. Johnson takes matters of the soul as seriously as the thrills, and does a miraculous job of weaving ideas and suspense as Alec continuously wins reader sympathy as he questions the beliefs that are foundational to life.

Takeaway: A dark adult thriller of faith, prophecy, and a murderous Satanic cult, crafted to keep readers guessing.

Great for fans of: Lynn Hightower’s Satan’s Lambs, Ray Russell.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A