"Killing me softly with each word." Song Lyrics

Once again, John Connolly gives his readers a unique and frightening story.

A construction crew unearths an unmarked cemetery in the upper Regions of Maine.

In that area, there had been a sheltered religious community a number of years ago. When the members weren't heard from for years, officials assumed that the community had moved to a different location.

PI Charlie Parker is hired to look into the death of a college student who was doing her thesis on religious groups in the area in northern Maine. The Aroostook Baptists history fascinated her. Claire had been to the offices of a religious community called the Fellowship. Shortly thereafter, the girl, Grace Peltier was found dead in her car, believed to be a suicide.

Charlie has had personal tragedies and hasn't taken cases like this since the loss of his wife and child to a deranged murderer in New York but is persuaded to do so.

The characters who he comes in contact with would make Bella Lugosi look like a librarian.  The story moves along nicely and we learn of the philosophy of the original Aroostook Baptists and their unrelenting leader, Rev. Faulkner.

The story is certainly original and Parker is a character who the reader can appreciate for his courage, bravery and as one friend says, he represents the dead as well as the living.

This is a captivating story that will hold the readers attention and be stored in their memories on those dark and stormy nights...perfect for Halloween.