Book Review: The Essence of Darkness by Tom Clearlake

It didn’t take long to be drawn into this story.

FBI Special Agent Elliot Cooper has been assigned to track down and find five children who have been abducted in a rural community in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania. It doesn’t take him long to find a satanic ritual being played out in the mountains. During the confrontation, Cooper is possessed by a monster.

Cooper’s love interest, Special Agent Lauren Chambers rushes to help him and together they attempt to try to find out more about this cult, what they are planning and a way to free Cooper from this demon.

This story grabs you by the throat and shakes you like an attacking dog. The horror is excellent, and the suspense is terrific, but then it morphs from a horror story to something entirely different.  I will not say what it transforms into as it would mean releasing spoilers. It was a wild ride, but I would have preferred to see the story unfold within two or three books rather than told much of the end story, especially because the first 2/3 of the book was fantastically written.

Have said that I would still recommend this book.