Art critic Jeremy Grove is found dead, his face frozen in a mask of terror. His body temperature is grotesquely high; he is discovered in a room barricaded from the inside; the smell of brimstone is everywhere...and the unmistakable imprint of a claw is burned into the wall. As more bodies are discovered - their only connection the bizarre but identical manner of death - the world begins to wonder if the Devil has, is fact, come to collect his due. Teaming with Police Officer Vincent D'Agosta, Agent Pendergast is determined to solve this case that appears to defy all logic. Their investigation takes them from the luxury estates of Long Island to the crumbling, legend-shrouded castles of the Italian countryside, where Pendergast faces the most treacherous and dangerous adversary of his career.
A burned corpse in a locked room, the overwhelming odor of brimstone, and a cloven hoof-print seared into the floor--all point to the supernatural. Then a second murder with the same MO has Agent Pendergast and sidekick Vincent D'Agosta wondering whether they're involved in a case of satanic retribution. Narrator Scott Brick uses his somber baritone with terrifying subtlety. Brick positively shines as an assortment of villainous suspects on both sides of the Atlantic, and when the investigation moves to Italy, he manages a reasonable Italian accent. As Faustian melodramas go, this one staggers under the weight of gruesome descriptions of death and an excess of hellfire. Even so, Scott Brick's performance infuses Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's thriller with chilling believability. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
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