REVIEW: Dark Debts by Karen Hall

I picked up this book in the bargain books section of my local bookstore…and I am so happy I did, even though I had never heard of this author and the cover freaked me out a bit.

This is a great novel. More than just a supernatural story where good versus evil. A story filled with sadness, hope, love, curses, Satanist cults, demon possessions, suicides, painful memories and much much more.

There are two parallel storylines that are connected by some of the characters in the book.

Jesuit priest, Michael Kinney, is in love with Tess and going through a faith crisis. Fighting against the duplicity of the church and archaic rituals and rules, he begins to question his own beliefs. Never believing in the idea of someone possessed by demons, he soon becomes realizing that there is something evil in the voices he has been hearing lately. He is torn between his love for Tess, who brings love and peace into his life and his love for the church and finds it difficult to make a decision in his life.

Jack Landry has suffered through so much in his life that at times I found myself thinking how unfair it was for him having to endure more grief and pain. He is the last remaining Landry…his father, a cruel evil monster, who Jack believes killed his brother even though it was ruled he drowned committed suicide. One of his brothers was sentenced to death by electrocution after going through a killing spree. His fragile mother killed herself on the anniversary of his death. The one brother who managed to get away from the horrors of their childhood eventually committed suicide as well. He keeps hearing voices in his head and believes that he is going to go the same ways as his family did….be killed or kill himself.

Randa Phillips, a New York writer and ex lover of Cam, Jack’s brother, who had killed someone in a robbery and then killed himself, decides to go to Georgia to find Jack and give him Cam’s family albums.

From the moment they meet, there is an incredible connection. I loved the scene where they both are unable to understand their feelings…..they feel such love for each other. It was really touching and poignant.

In the beginning I couldn’t see the connection between the characters but soon you discover that there is something really scary, chilling but in the end, love between two of the people.

The story is so well paced with some great, witty, and at times humorous dialogue and imaginative writing. The characters come alive. You want them to win and find happiness. There was quite a lot of research done on the subject of the story but the way we learn so much about the church, demons and more.

I couldn’t put this book down. I kept reading every page and found myself impatient to go back to it when I had a chance between work times.

I just wish that she had written a few more novels.