The Nameless Dead

Johnston's over-the-top fourth novel featuring British writer-turned-action-hero Matt Wells (after Maps of Hell) finds Wells and his pregnant girlfriend, Det. Chief Supt. Karen Oaten, in federal custody in Illinois because they tried to kill the attorney general at FBI headquarters and the U.S. president at Washington National Cathedral. Since Nazis programmed them to do their evil bidding, the couple are eventually released. Wells has another problem: his former lover, Sara Robbins, who has "turned out to be the sister of a ruthless serial executioner who called himself the White Devil," is gunning for him. Meanwhile, the murder of a civil rights attorney, disemboweled and decapitated in her Manhattan apartment under a painted swastika, proves to be the first of a series of grisly murders across the country. Toss in a satanic cult, the Antichurch of Lucifer Triumphant, and you have a sprawling tale likely to appeal only to diehard Johnston fans. (Apr.)