Sacred Prey

A present-day Scrooge with an evil bent, wealthy New Orleans oilman Adam Claiborne, who has taken up loan sharking during the recession, tracks down and kills a young couple who have failed to pay off their debt. The next day, he goes to church, expecting to receive absolution as usual from his sycophantic confessor, but instead finds a new priest who tells him, ``Until you know the sorrows of your victims, your sins cannot be forgiven.'' Claiborne's sleep that night is troubled, and he wakes to find himself in the body of one of his victims, Charlie Sinclair. With Charlie's wife Monique, he must live through the inexorable chain of events leading to the murders while trying to somehow redeem himself in time to save their lives. Screenwriter Schilling shows deft storytelling ability in her first novel; starting with the timeworn premise of an unrepentant sinner receiving his supernatural comeuppance, she manages to keep the plot fresh, lively and supplied with plenty of suspenseful twists. The story's effectiveness is sometimes marred by wooden prose, but in general this is a promising debut that will surely entertain genre devotees. (Jan.)