The Forbidden

Demonic possession drives the plot of this polished supernatural thriller from Tallis (The Sleep Room). In 1872, Dr. Paul Clément accepts a position with a missionary hospital on the island of Saint-Sébastian in the French Antilles, only to have a terrifying encounter with an apparent zombie. A medical colleague provides a rational explanation for the apparition, but Clément is still unsettled by the warning from the island bokor (sorcerer) not to reveal to anyone what he witnessed. On returning to Paris, Clément begins working with electricity to revive the dead. When he learns that some of the patients who survived the procedure report visions of the afterlife, Clément subjects himself to the same treatment. His experience is anything but inspirational, and on resuming consciousness, he gradually realizes that he did not return to the waking world alone. Tallis knows how to elicit fear in his readers, with first-rate prose and atmospherics. [em]Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.) (May) [/em]