James Byron Huggins, Sorcerer

Sorcerer

James Byron Huggins

Whitaker House, April 2006, $12.99

ISBN: 0883688182

After almost a quarter of a century as a Special Forces Officer and a police detective, Michael Thorn takes an early retirement to spend his time with his family. He buys a mansion in Cedar Ridge, Massachusetts, thirty miles from Salem, but on his very first night in their new home, Thorn hears a funny noise in the basement.

When he knocks down the wall where the noise is coming from Thorn finds a skeleton with silver manacles around his hands and writing on them. When the police arrive the skeleton is missing. The local priest feels that something evil was here, and soon they figure out that the skeleton was that of Jannes, the magician of Egypt defeated by Moses. The sorcerer made a pact eons ago with a demon of immense power, and now that he is free, he intends to rule just like he did in Ancient Egypt. Priests, nuns, the Assassin warriors of the church and Thorn work together to defeat this evil, but is the faith of God's warriors strong enough to defeat this undead sorcerer?

This novel is a fantastic supernatural good vs. evil thriller in which the antagonist uses dark magic, while the heroes counter with the power of prayer. Thorn is an amazing protagonist who calmly accepts the fact that he will have to fight a supernatural evil that has seen many civilizations rise and fall. There are plenty of battle scenes, but the best part of SORCERER is the characters. The humans are very realistic and portrayed as ordinary people called to do something that could get them killed, yet all are willing to do so in order that evil doesn't gain a stronger foothold on earth than it already has. James Byron Huggins' message to his readers, cleverly imbued in the storyline, is that with faith all things are possible.