Book 53 of my 2012 Goal

Malevolent by David Searls
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Malevolent by David Sears is a psychological thriller that takes place in Cleveland, Ohio. This multi-character tale starts off with the main character of Tim Brentwood's chance encounter with a local area business owner, Griffin Solloway, at the scene of a rape. Griffin is later accused of the rape and this just starts the cascading events that take place in Cleveland. Something is feeding on the fears and spreading suspicion among the residents but is it real? The author takes us into the deepest, darkest places of fear including rape, murder, and other evils that effect the residents of Cleveland.

In this fast paced story of supernatural and evil Tim and Griffin realize that something unnatural is happening to people in town. No one is spared, not even the minister of the Utica Lane Church of Redemption. In fact, they discover that the only thing in common of those who are experiencing these 'evil happenings' are those that have been to this church. They set out to solve the mystery of this evil demon's grasp on Cleveland once and for all.

The quick pace of the story starts at the beginning and continues throughout the story. Even though there are multi-characters (after all we are dealing with a city) and the story switches among them, it does so in the way that is not confusing. Each of these characters are developed nicely with Tim Brentwood and even Griffin Solloway being the lead characters and most developed. The story surprisingly even comes off being believable in that the characters are realistic as well as the town, rape and murders do happen. The jury is still out on ghosts and demons but even today many claim to have seen them so that can be believable in the sense that they claim they are real. The story doesn't drag on and has a steady pace with the events being varied and plentiful throughout. It kept me glued to the book to see what will happen next.

Because of the sexual subjects and cursing I would recommend Malevolent to adults who enjoy thrillers/horror stories.


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