The Chosen

Paul Rice returns to Lanark, Wisconsin to help his friend, Police Chief Thayer, with another murder that has all the earmards of a ritual killer he thought was dead. When he arrives in town, he finds that Durie House, which he burned to the ground a year age, is very much visible at night with lights burning in all its windows, lights that only he and Thayer can see. The more he digs into the recent murder, the deeper the trail goes back, all the way to Egypt and the ancient papyrus text of a high priest who specialized in bringing back the dead. Along the twisting trail, he encounters a knowledgeable Brother Janus, a member of a brotherhood, called the Philo, that dates back to the time of Christ, and keeps watch over the earth's evil gates of entry. From him, Rice discovers that he was long ago chosen for the very task he is now pursuing, and that he has a centuries old link to four beautiful women who now protect him from the snares of Black Magic, and the dead that are brought back for one purpose - to eliminate him. More murders occur that take on a different ritualistic bent than the first one where victims are now chosen using a death list, one that has his friend, Thayer's name on it. Everything points Rice toward a centuries old score that needs to be settled with an old, deadly foe, who is backed with the power of the Lord of the Flies himself.