Icy Curtis is trying to recover from the murder of her husband, and with her young son
Danny, she moves from Chicago, to the quieter surroundings of Wichita, Kansas. Danny needs
some special love to help him cope with the loss of his father and Icy is doing everything
she can to help him work through it. But death just won't leave them alone.
Helen Brimmer, a friend of Icy's and the proprietor of a local women's shelter is murdered,
and the word "malevolence" is scrawled in blood on the wall. It's Icy who discovers the
body.
The police send over-the-hill and overweight Detective Milt Barbarino to investigate
the murder. He's a wily and intuitive old cuss and develops an immediate respect for Icy.
Their relationship is special, almost like a father/daughter thing.
The case gets more complicated by more deaths and more murders and more incidences of
"malevolence" being written at the crime scenes. The deeper the detective digs into the
situation the more it appears that Demonic Possession may be the driving force behind
the killings and Icy may be the Devil's grand prize.
It's a chilling book to say the least and at times it looked like it was taking me
in directions that I didn't want to go. But the story is so riveting that I had to push on.
It was well worth it. It's the kind of tale that makes everybody a suspect and you're
never really sure that good will actually triumph over evil. After all, you're dealing
with a supernatural villain who just might inhabit anybody's soul.
Some authors are "writers" while others are "story tellers." Nancy Mehl is both.
Her story is absorbing, imaginative, and plausible and her prose is absolutely poetic.
In spite of the shivers that I felt in a few parts of the book, I found it totally enjoyable.
A word of caution though; if you're going to read this book in bed at night, you might
want to consider leaving the light on when you go to sleep.