I am pleased to bring you my first book from the
Ever After PR company. Book bloggers, this is a REALLY fun company to work with, and they offer a TON of options for bringing books to your readers. Check them out if you are looking for more books to review.
Today I am bringing you "The Prophet" by K.J. Dahlen. The following synopsis was provided by Ever After to tell you about the book. You can buy "The Prophet" on Amazon.com in
Kindle and
paperback editions.
The Prophet
Synopsis
For the last three years FBI agents
Rheta Morgan and Sean Carter have been following a serial killer known as the
Prophet Elijah. Each has his/her own reason for hunting him down. Their reasons
are personal but that doesn’t stop them from hunting down this killer. Rheta’s
reason is that Elijah murdered her sister. She was one of his “Chosen One’s.”
The Prophet is a man they know as Elijah
Banks. He swooped into town, gathers a handpicked flock, takes everything they
have and departs after murdering his “Chosen One”. He’s crafty and never says
in one area too long. That’s the biggest
reason he hasn’t been caught yet.
Rheta and Sean find him in La Crosse, WI
and they are determined not to lose him this time. When they arrest his disciple, Cole Robbins
they uncover evidence that leads them to the complex behind the scenes cult
Elijah belongs to called The Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a secret society
set up twenty years ago by a man named Richard Holden. Richard encouraged his
group to recruit people with less than savory reputations for his army of
followers. Richard wanted the power and the wealth of being the one in charge.
He named himself the “Father” and has complete control over the Brotherhood.
Rheta discovers that her partner was at
one time a part of The Brotherhood. But Sean comes clean and explains he was
undercover at the time and has been undercover ever since. His real name is
Michael Roane. He also tells him that Elijah isn’t the Prophet’s real name. His
real name is Jody Bradford and Jody is Michael’s cousin.
Jody barely escapes from La Crosse
leaving behind chaos and several broken and bloody lives. They trail him to northern Minnesota. The
cult is there for a “Gathering.”
The FBI including Rheta and Michael
confront the cult and manage to contain most of the group. Who isn’t dead from
the gunfight are arrested. But when the dust settles Jody is nowhere to be
found. The leader Richard Holden is missing as well. They find Richard’s body a
little later. He died from a stab wound rather than a bullet and Michael and
Rheta know that Jody murdered Richard.
Rheta is worried that he’ll change his name and start all over somewhere
else but Michael knows how to bring Elijah back to him. He has taken something
Jody values most. He found Jody’s money and he knows Jody will want it
back. In retaliation Jody comes back and
kidnaps the two people Michael cares about the most, Michael’s sister Theresa
and Rheta herself. Jody sends Michael a video of Rheta, hanging in a silo
slowly filling with corn and Theresa who he’s buried alive with a small tank of
oxygen.
Now the race is on to see if Michael can
rescue Rheta and his sister before Jody gets away for good. They track him down
to a small town in Colorado. Michael finds Rheta just moments before the silo
implodes but when they find Elijah’s compound, he’s nowhere to be found.
Michael finds where Jody sent him the video concerning his sister but his
sister is missing.
Jody is running for his life and Michael
and Rheta are two steps behind him.
Theresa causes an accident that leaves her injured and Jody on foot.
When they find him, Jody refuses to go quietly. In fact he taunts Michael that
the Brotherhood will never be stopped. He claims that his brothers will avenge
his betrayal and that Michael won’t see them coming until it’s too late. He
claims that even good people can be pushed only so far before they fall into
anarchy. Jody claims there is a restlessness, almost an undercurrent of evil
brewing and that soon it would spill out and consume everything good and pure.
The storm of evil is coming sooner than they think. Then rather than spend the
rest of his life in prison, Jody chooses certain death.
Michael and Rheta are left with more
questions than answers and hopes Jody is wrong.
And.... for your reading pleasure, here is an excerpt from the book:
Chapter One
It was late and Rheta sat at her desk in Chicago reading yet
another report. Her eyes were tired, causing the words to blur
together. She stopped for a moment and took off her reading glasses
then rubbed her eyes. She had the beginnings of a really good
headache starting and it didn’t want to quit. The nagging pain in her
temple was spreading and she knew she should call it a night.
The light on her desk seemed awfully bright tonight. She got
up to get herself another cup of coffee and found her muscles tired
and sore from sitting at her desk too long. She glanced at the clock.
No wonder I’m tired, she thought to herself. The clock read 3:34 a.m.
She looked over at the couch in her office. Maybe I should take a
nap, she thought as she headed over toward the couch. Glancing over
at the coffee pot, she noticed it was empty anyway.
Rheta headed for the couch. As she stretched out, she was
very glad she hadn’t given into Sean’s request for a leather sofa in the
office. She hated the feel of leather and since she spent most of her
time right here in this office, she had the final say in the decor. As she
closed her eyes, she thought about turning off the light, but her body
wouldn’t let her get up again. She was almost asleep before her eyes closed.
About two hours later, she began tossing and turning caught
up in the all-too-familiar nightmare she dreaded. She was leaning
toward the makeshift alter, reaching her hand out to the person lying
there. Her hand was shaking as she touched the cold, clammy skin.
Rheta gently brushed a lock of blonde hair from the woman’s
forehead and wept with sadness as she looked down at the face of
someone she had loved. Her sister hadn’t deserved this fate, no one
did.
Rheta touched her face and gently outlined her cheek with
her finger. She couldn’t believe Sarah was gone, yet the pool of blood
from the wound on her neck spoke differently. Her entire shirt was
painted crimson with it. Tears of rage and anger filled Rheta’s soul
and as she wept for the sister she couldn’t save. She vowed not to let
the man who murdered her get away with it.
Rheta looked down at her hands. They were stained with
Sarah’s blood and her own tears. She looked at her sister’s face one
more time and was horrified to see the face no longer was Sarah’s but
another woman’s. Her name had been Kelly or Janice or was it
Nancy? She couldn’t remember them all anymore. There had been so
many, a different face in each city over the last few years. She
looked again at the face she didn’t recognize. This time, the face was
a skeleton. There was no flesh or features left on it. It was just what
remained after everything else had faded away. She opened her
mouth to scream but couldn’t make any sound come out. With her
heart pounding in her chest, Rheta sat up on the couch and screamed
out loud.
She brushed her long dark hair away from her face and
looked around the room. Glancing toward the window, she saw the
dawn just breaking in the eastern horizon. Wiping the sweat from her
forehead, she got up and stumbled toward the coffee pot. Rheta was
still shaking inside as she remembered the nightmare that had plagued
her for the last few years, ever since she had found her sister Sarah’s
body. She caught her reflection in the mirror above the coffee station
and grimaced. Her hair had a tossed look she got when she slept
badly. Her green eyes looked tired and there were dark circles under
them.
A man who called himself, The Prophet, had murdered
Sarah and all the others. To Rheta, he was nothing more than a serial
killer who hadn’t been caught yet, and she stressed the word yet.
She and Sean had been trailing the man responsible for these
deaths for three years now. They had tracked him through four
different states and about 13 cities along the way. His M.O. was
always the same. He would set up shop in an abandoned building
somewhere on the poorer side of town and troll the streets looking for
his next victim. Then all the while, he would gather a following of
people looking for something missing from their dull everyday lives.
He would offer them hope of a better tomorrow with one hand as he
took what little they had as far as money or possessions with the
other. The people around him were so overwhelmed by his presence
they never realized what he was doing to them until it was too late.
He was gone and they were left with nothing, except empty hearts
and wallets and something else...at least one of them would be dead.
So, what do you think? Does this sound like something you would like to read?
