SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 2, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- The sleepy, rural town of Mariah, N.C. is more than it seems, and when mysterious events occur, the truth about its evil past begins to surface. In the new spiritual thriller The Church Burner (now available through 1stBooks), by III, the town's oldest church burns to the ground. On the same night a murder occurs and the world is fixated on an event of global magnitude. Through baffling investigations, a timeless battle between good and evil erupts.
Sheriff Angela B. Solomon and the local fire department are confused by the fire. There are no clues to tell them how it was caused. Through her investigations, she narrows the suspects down to the preacher, who is aware of the lucrative insurance policy and Mariah's dark past; the leader of the choir, John Forsyte, who was the only one in the area at the time; and the twins, Hope and Faith Matthews, whose playful attitudes that night made the sheriff suspicious. Forsyte and the Matthews twins not only becoming romantically involved, but join together to fight the world's evil powers.
That same night, the town's newcomer and archeologist Edward Troy, Jr. became the town's first murder victim in 17 years. His father, the only witness to the twisted death, flees.
The strange events in Mariah are a precursor to the larger battle preparing to be fought. Mariah owes a heavy debt, the church's reverend knows more about the truth than he is revealing, the archeologists are digging up ancient evil relics and the Church Burner, a character who kills and destroys, holds a mystical power that he plans to use for collecting Mariah's debt.
III began this novel after realizing there were very few black authors writing dark thrillers. The rash of church burning in the mid-1990s also enraged the author. The combination of the two led to this gripping novel. Born in Detroit, he lived in Los Angeles for 22 years before moving to Sacramento. He has worked in the California Workers' Compensation Insurance Industry for 26 years. An avid traveler, he has visited places such as Mambasa, Kenya Djibouti, Hong Kong, Korea, Pakistan and the Philippines. III is working on Church Burner II and a project involving scary short stories.
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