Seeing Evil
by
Jason Parent
Red Adept Publishing, trade pb
July 2015, First Edition, 230pp
A Review by Gene Stewart
Concise, savvy writing propels this psychological thriller as lives clash in a struggle for survival that becomes increasingly intense and powerful for each.
Those involved are female Major Crimes detective, Samantha ‘Sam’ Reilly; a boy with ESP who barely survives bullies at high school, Michael Turcotte; a fragile, abused girl, Tessa Masterson; and her psychopathic serial killer father obsessed by rules.
Touching others sometimes shows Michael a likely future. His visions come accompanied by seizures and black-outs. They are surreal and they terrify him, yet they motivate him, too. He needs to find ways to stop the horrific future carnage he keeps seeing.
Sam, his mentor and guardian since finding him as a toddler at a particularly nasty crime scene that took away his parents, launching him into a series of foster homes, is his only touchstone of stability. When she is threatened, he is more focused than ever on finding ways to save her from a bloody fate, along with stopping an escalating, desperate killer.
Befriended by Tessa, who hopes this strange, avoided boy from school can help her escape her tortured life, Michael’s insights are heightened even as his visions grow exponentially darker.
Then Tessa’s ferocious, insane father notices what his daughter and others are doing to work against him, and goes on a murderous rampage targeted on that creepy boy from school and that meddlesome detective.
Can Michael find ways big or small to thwart what seems inescapable violent doom? Can Sam help without being killed? Can Michael save Sam? Is Tessa, forced by her father to witness, entice, even participate in the torture and murder of victims — starting with her own mother, who broke her father’s rigid, unpredictable rules — be trusted?
Jason Parent writes clearly and intelligently. His scenes are lucid and compels readers onward. Suspense, horror, and gritty realism combine in characters we all have known, or have been. He handles viewpoint switches with seamless grace, always intent on cranking up reader involvement and interest. It’s a fascinating, appalling, and ultimately thrilling terror ride.
Top notch thriller with a touch of the supernatural in it, full of savvy portraits and informed settings, written superbly.
Strongly recommended.
/// /// ///
