Although the publisher touts this novel as part of "a brand new genre" of Christian chillers, Mackel (The Surrogate
) actually joins W.G. Griffiths, Frank Peretti and other novelists in adding a touch of horror to evangelical Christian bookshelves. Joshua Lazarus is on the downside of a show-biz career in magic when his luck changes and he is catapulted to television cable stardom as a fraudulent medium. The cash rolls in, but soon Joshua is entangled with dark forces. The tension escalates as Joshua's wife, Maggie, discovers Christianity at a run-down Massachusetts recreational center and encounters a coven of witches living just across the street. Spine-tingling, creepy moments are dampened by too many point-of-view changes, and it takes a contrivance (a scribbled note found in a coat pocket) to usher in the novel's climax. In a strange development, Joshua and Maggie are told by their Christian friends that they need to live apart "to allow each of them time to grow in their faith before resuming a full-time life as man and wife." Rather than ending solidly with Joshua's realization of what he has become, the novel instead soldiers on with cheap thrills, bludgeoning the reader with sudden scenes of mayhem including fire, destruction, spiders, snakes, cave-ins and lines like "I will skin your wife alive and make the boy watch." Squeamish readers might want to look elsewhere. (Mar.)
