Even in Darkness

April 1, 2013
Horror fans will best appreciate this solid paranormal thriller from Shamus Award–winner Hightower (Satan’s Lambs). Recently divorced Olivia James is preparing to leave California with her eight-year-old daughter, Teddy, for her hometown of Knoxville, Tenn., when she receives a phone call—from her brother, Chris, who has just died. Chris, who says he “had to pay the piper,” warns Olivia that the “Mister Man”— their childhood name for the bogeyman who carried off their sister, Emily, 25 years earlier—is after her. Once Olivia and Teddy are settled in their new home, a “somebody” Teddy calls Duncan Lee starts to spook the girl amid such mysterious manifestations as inexplicably falling boxes and ceiling plaster. Olivia gets help from a visiting friend, her ex-husband, and her former cop boyfriend, but that’s not enough to prevent things from turning deadly. Will Olivia be able to save Teddy from an evil entity named Decan Ludde? Few will be surprised by the upbeat outcome.

February 24, 2014
A tortuous plot and shallow characters mar this psychological thriller from Hightower (The Piper). Joy Miller, a former TV evangelist based in Lexington, Ky., is distraught to receive a plain brown envelope in the mail that contains photos showing three of her fellow seminarians before and after being murdered. She suspects the sender is the person she refers to as the “Dark Man,” the mysterious curse of her life. A note with the photos warns against contacting the police, but when FBI agents tell her that her late son’s wife, Caroline, and her young granddaughter, Andee, are missing from their Fort Smith, Ark., home, Joy shares the photos but not what she knows about the likely sender. Joy, who feels that she alone can save Caroline and Andee, has to deal with suspicious FBI agents as well as additional threats from the Dark Man. By the end, readers will be more likely scratching their heads than trembling in their boots. Agent: Matt Bialer, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

April 15, 2014
To save those she loves, an evangelist must confront an evildoer desperate for salvation. Joy Miller, the television evangelist who was once the voice of Joy Miller Ministries, has been retired for years, since her husband's suicide led to her breakdown. In spite of her public silence, the media couldn't get enough of the scandal when Joy dared to testify on behalf of her daughter-in-law, Caroline, when she was tried for killing her abusive husband, Joy's son, Joey. The reason for Caroline's acquittal may have been this supportive testimony from Joy, or it may have been that Caroline was five months pregnant. On the seven-year anniversary of Joey's death, Joy receives an anonymous package bearing photos of former colleagues, their throats torn out by some sort of animalistic human. Immediately she knows that these pictures have come from the Dark Man, a nameless figure from her past who believes Joy may represent his only hope of salvation. Joy isn't sure what the Dark Man wants from her until she's visited by the police in the middle of the night. They tell her that Caroline and her daughter Andee have been kidnapped, yet no note has been left. When Joy's inability to explain her own connection to the Dark Man vaults her to the top of the suspect list, she knows that the time has come for her to confront the Dark Man and the secrets from her own past in order to rescue Caroline and Andee. The latest from Hightower (The Piper, 2013, etc.) is psychologically compelling, but its revelations are unevenly paced, some coming too soon to generate much suspense and others presented as mere afterthoughts.

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