The Death Prayer: The York Mysteries

Rating:
Summary: Yorkshire magic and mayhem
Review: "The Death Prayer" is an unusual, hard-to-categorize book. It starts out like a 'noir' police procedural. There are actually two mass murderers on the loose in Yorkshire, one a 'standard' serial killer who (usually)preys on isolated women. The other is an evil sorcerer who has assumed the trappings of a late twentieth century 'faith healer'. Detective Superintendent Vernon Laverne, the hero of "The Death Prayer" has already captured one serial killer before the book begins. His colleagues on the force applaud his results, but are suspicious of his intuitive style of detection.

Excellent character development, and chilling, bone-twisting scenes of supernatural horror are the hooks that make "The Death Prayer" well worth reading. Vernon Laverne is much better developed, and consequently more interesting than the standard run of paranormal detectives who rely on gimmicks (magic rings, pentacles, weird ceremonies, etc.) to get their man (or demon).

You're really going to admire him by book's end.

Speaking of book's end, I subtracted a star because the end is a messy, anti-climax to the horror that occurred earlier in the plot. The scene in the Cathedral on New Year's Eve is especially chilling, and my only wish is that the book's end could have reached a similar height.