Adversary

The main character in this story is Nathan Dreslin, a small time, professional conman, who roped his only childhood friend into a real estate con and ended up getting his friend and himself killed by a mobster they had tried to pull into his con. Both were shot in the head and left in the snow, dead. But somehow, Nathan survived, shot just under his right eye, with the bullet missing his brain and deflecting downwards. The doctors believe the cold and snow kept him from losing any of his faculties, when he came back to life. But he didn’t make it back on his own. He sees a dark shadow in the corner of his hospital room and later sees this shadow closer up and sees a horrifying wide mouth with sharp teeth. He also hears a voice inside his head. In a separate part of the storyline is a priest, Father Bruce McIntyre, an exorcist, who has been paired up by the church, with a young research scientist Lyla Kam, who wanted to observe his work. She has a focus in biophysics and neurophilosophy. She accompanied him to two so called exorcisms Father Bruce was called to. The first, a woman called Rosanna, who had come home from a family trip and deteriorated quickly and her husband eventually called the church for help.

When Father Bruce and Lyla arrived, he could sense there was a darkness and something not right in the bedroom where she was lying nearing death, but as he started carrying out the exorcism, nothing went as it should have. Whatever evil or darkness was within her, wasn’t reacting to his words, holy water or even anointed oil. But somehow, whatever was within her left her body and mind at the end of his session, leaving him puzzled and Lyla looking at some very unusual scientific results! The next case he is called in for, is by the police, who have someone in custody who is frightening even the hardened officers and seemingly got someone in the next room to try and chew off their wrists. On each occasion, the voice coming from the victim, knew intimate details of those around them, even the priest, research scientist, even the police. Another man killed himself in front of a train, after grabbing hold of Nathan Dreslin at an underground station platform, on the day he was released from hospital. Each says a lot of nonsensical words and part sentences, but each says VSVN, something none of them understand. Each person seemingly infected, had travelled through a place called Nullarbor, in the wilds of Australia. Examining each person’s final rantings and writings leaves them wondering what they meant, as it is all very similar and makes no sense. They all mention Nathan Dreslin, the Emissary, the key to the kingdom, the one and many.

He is being pursued by those affected, some call the afflicted, wanting to touch him, to pass on whatever they are infected by. He is the perfect open mind for the being to infect and use for its own purpose. It tells him not to let any of the afflicted to touch him, mixing the horrors they are being affected by, in coming after Nathan for some reason. The one mind, in many, having just one thought and that is to reach Nathan. But they are not the only ones after him, as the mobster Coombs, is also searching for him, to silence him from testifying about the shooting and trying to detract from the reliability of his initial statement. A mix of horror with a touch of sci-fi, or ancient history and gods or demons, however you want to look at them. An evil is awaiting them all in the Australian outback and the trio will need to confront it, if they are ever to have peace of mind and an ending to this months of strange happenings. A strange storyline and I found it quite slow in pace and leaving me behind a bit, taking a lot of effort to try and finish reading. Maybe if slow boil psychological horror with a touch of sci-fi, are your thing, you will enjoy this. I can’t say I really did, it was okay, but not earth shattering, nor an easy read. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.