Voices

Voices, Edward Bonadio, Writer's Club Press, 2001

In this modern tale of good and evil, Jake Haley is a reclusive loner living in present-day Oakland. His soul has become easy pickings for an evil that needs him to do the dirty work, through voices coming from his beloved TV set. After he lets the evil take him over, Jake's new job is to kill Wilson, the mayor of Oakland, so that Cameron Parker, the vice Mayor and another of the entity's minions, can take over and run the city the "right" way. Several years ago, as a prosecutor, Wilson put away Billy Martin, a notorious serial killer and another of the entity's minions. With Parker in the Mayor's Office, Martin will have a better chance of escaping from police custody.

Jake almost succeeds in his quest to kill the Mayor. He sets up a bomb inside a hotel ballroom where the Mayor is to appear. A lot of people die, but not the Mayor. Later, he sets up several bombs inside a school gymnasium just before another appearance by the Mayor, but is stopped by the police.

Jake isn't the only one hearing voices. Oakland police detective Lea Moore is a rising star in the Department. She starts hearing voices, mostly that of Jimmy, her late partner and ex-lover. She still feels responsible for his needless death a couple of years earlier. Through solid police work, she and Arlis, her partner, get to Haley just before he is to set off the bombs in the school gymnasium. In police custody, Haley fingers Cameron Parker, just before the entity is exorcised out of him by Father Rojas, a local priest suffering a crisis of faith and who has also been hearing voices. Lea and Arlis have words with Parker, just before Parker kills Arlis and Lea kills Parker. With the entity, named Matzorgein, defeated  and with the immediate danger to the city gone, the story ends, right? Several years later, in another city, Matzorgein lets Lea know that it is about to have the last laugh.

Is it possible that evil people like Hitler are the latest vehicles for ancient forces that conspire to commit great evil? Is your neighbor simply not a nice person, or is the reason much more sinister?

This is much better than the average police story. It touches on a lot of things, and it's just plausible and spooky enough to keep the reader thinking after the book is finished. It's very much worth reading.