About the BookIt’s been a while since Samuel Roberts was called upon to save mankind, and he’s getting restless. His girlfriend Susan thinks he’s a danger junkie, and he’s worried he has a hero complex. He’s back to his usual small-town lawyerly duties in Champaign-Urbana, handling divorces and helping people beat DUI raps. But then a young fraternity pledge calls. During an initiation ceremony he witnessed the live sacrifice of a young woman, but he had so much alcohol in his system that no one believes him. Except Sam. Lately Egyptian lore has been creeping into his life, his dreams, and his movie preferences, and he’s pretty sure he knows why. Evil is knocking on his door again.
Is the call welcome? Why can’t Sam be satisfied with his comfortable legal practice and gorgeous redheaded girlfriend? Maybe it’s because he knows that, as inadequate as he may feel to the task, he and his friend Bob may be humanity’s only hope against ancient supernatural forces combined with modern genetic engineering. Come hell or high water. Or in this case, the underworld or subterranean pyramids.
The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is the third book in the Samuel Roberts Thriller series, which began with Cocaine Zombies and continued with Ruler of Demons.
My Review
The supernatural always seems to find Attorney Sam Roberts.
At first, he didn't go looking for it—it found him. But now it's different. Now it's become a bit of an obsession with him because his life seems boring and meaningless whenever his latest case isn't putting him in mortal danger.
He asks:
"Why would anyone willingly choose to go from the Technicolor world of Oz to the dusty black and white world of Kansas?"
Tangling with demons has turned this mild-mannered lawyer into something of a thrill seeker, a true adrenaline junkie. Sam doesn't want to be ordinary anymore. And that's a problem, because his girlfriend, Susan, certainly does.
When a college student solicits Sam's counsel, saying that his fraternity killed a young, innocent girl during some kind of ancient Egyptian ritual, Sam immediately believes the kid's telling the truth—because he wants to believe him. Who cares if it the boy was drunk at the time? Who cares if it was just some hazing stunt meant to scare him off? Sam is all in from the word go.
He even admits:
"I was imagining a conspiracy based on my own desire to reenter the world of the supernatural. I was as delusional as my client."
But as the clues start to mount, Sam knows he's not crazy. There's something strange going on here. Every time he approaches a current or former member of the fraternity, he's met with hostility and violence. A mummified falcon is even left on his doorstep, wrapped in a piece of papyrus containing the curse found on the entrance to King Tut's tomb.
But it's not until a young woman named Lark approaches him, and discloses that she thinks the frat murdered her sister on its altar of human sacrifices that things start to get real. No one ever took the disappearance seriously and Lark feels that it was hushed up on purpose by the rich and powerful alumni who claim prior affiliation to the fraternity. These guys aren't just millionaires—they're billionaires.
Sam knows he has his work cut out for him, taking on such a powerful organization, but Lark's story makes an impression on him. Now he feels personally responsible for protecting all of the innocent women out there from meeting such a terrible end.
He states:
"Unlike the ancient Egyptians, I place more value on the living than the dead."
Especially when he finds out that the frat is planning to mummify their first human being on the eve of the next full moon—in their brand new hidden pyramid, no less.
The clock is ticking, and things take a sinister turn when the woman, whose organs they hope to harvest, is someone Sam actually knows.
***
The Fraternity of the Soul Eater can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords
Formats/Prices: $4.99 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 218
Release: June 1, 2015
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603812894
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About the AuthorAuthor and attorney Scott A. Lerner resides in Champaign, Illinois. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and went on to obtain his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. He is currently a sole practitioner in Champaign, Illinois. The majority of his law practice focuses on the fields of criminal law and family law. Lerner’s first novel and the first Samuel Roberts Thriller, Cocaine Zombies, won a bronze medal in the mystery/cozy/noir category of the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. The second book in the series is Ruler of Demons. The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is book 3. Book 4, The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest, will be released on Halloween, 2015.
Links to connect with Scott:
Web Site
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site
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Thanks for the review! :)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fun read.
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