The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye

Bruce Hennigan
iUniverse (2006)
ISBN 9780595403967
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (1/07)

A man comes crawling up the beach to a woman’s home, begging for help.  Apparently badly beaten and left to die in the ocean, he’s somehow managed to survive.  Lapsing into a coma, he wakes up ten days later in the hospital with no memory of who he is or any part of his former life.  The only clue the police could find was a frequent diner’s card for a local sandwich shop bearing the name J. Steel.

Six weeks later, physically healed but still without his memory, Jonathan is released from the hospital.  With nowhere to go, Jonathan accepts a job as caretaker for Dr. Richard Pierce at his vacation condo.  As the weeks go past, Jonathan finds himself falling in love with the doctor’s daughter April, herself a doctor. 

On the eve of their engagement, Jonathan returns to the condo to find the doctor almost dead at the hands of a madman and no sign of his fiancée.  Finding her alive and unharmed, Jonathan attempts to escape the madman who had done such violence, only to have them both caught and April killed before Jonathan is able to kill the man, who is actually a demon.  As April lay dying in his arms, she told Jonathan that the demon had said that he had to kill Jonathan before he destroyed all of his kind.  With her last breath, she begs Jonathan to fight the evil. 

For the next six months, Jonathan stays at Richard Pierce’s side as he lay in a coma.  During his one brief period of lucidity, Jonathan had to tell him about April’s death and the death of the demon.  Richard rewrites his will, leaving all his possessions to Jonathan to enable him to stop the demons before they take over the planet and after Richard dies, Jonathan begins his quest, hampered by FBI agent Franklin Ross who thinks Jonathan set up the demon’s death to gain access to the Pierce money.

And so begins Jonathan’s quest.  His first hurdle looms immediately; where does one go to find demons?  Two years later Jonathan arrives at Lakewood Community Church in Lakeside, Louisiana to begin his battle.

Once I started “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye,” I could hardly put it down.  I just had to read one more page and suddenly I found it was three a.m. and I had to start work in four hours.

I can hardly wait for the next Jonathan Steel book, “The 12th Demon: The Blood of the Vampyre.”

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