From Publishers Weekly
Does the devil live? Can he take over a man's life, passing down his powers from father to son? Farrow's answer in this novel--more horror than mystery--is an overblown yes. Three Charleston, S.C., childhood buddies assembled at the funeral of a fourth in 1997 seem only mildly interested in the police investigation of the most recent in a series of tourist murders. Meanwhile, black police lieutenant Harry Holmes recognizes a clue left at each scene: a scraggly root that represents a fatal curse in a voodoo-like religion practiced by local island inhabitants. As Holmes investigates the murders, he pinpoints local white author and tour guide Andrew Rutledge as the likely killer. Rutledge, whose history of misfortune includes the deaths of his wife and children, has been having bizarre hallucinatory experiences in which he enters the bodies of female murder victims. An extended flashback informs readers about root medicine in the coastal Carolinas and recounts a particular stormy night nearly 30 years earlier on which the devil's power was transferred from a father to his son, who is one of Rutledge's friends. Rutledge begins to identify the source of evil and attempts to destroy the evil one before he himself is caught by Holmes. Gradually, Farrow's routine police procedural becomes a sludgy polemic on demonic possession, a progression that will disappoint many mystery readers.
Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
The Root Of All Evil David A. Farrow When Charleston police detective Harry Holmes arrives at a local hotel to examine the mutilated body of a beautiful, young woman, his worst fear is confirmed--a serial killer is at work in the city. This is the third victim to be found with heart removed and a strange root fastened in her hair. While detective Holmes ponders the impact of the publics reaction to news of a serial killer, Andrew Rutledge--writer, tour guide, widower, and scion of an old Charleston family--is experiencing strange dreams and blackouts. The Root of All Evil captures Charleston's unique history, families,institutions, and customs in a suspenseful tale where old and new, tradition and progess, and the forces of good and evil bring the reader to a powerful and unexpected conclusion. Back Flap Copy After studing at George Washington University and graduating from the College of Charleston, David Farrow turned to journalism and broadcasting with his byline appearing in Charleston Magazine, Carolina Style magazine, the Sea Pines Gazette and the Post & Courier. He is the author of CHarleston, South Carolina: A Remembrance of Things Past and founder of a tour company that is famous for its entertaining and slightly irreverant tours of historic Charleston. Farrow lives with his wife Cary and their dog "Jack" in his native city. Author photo by Pete Peters
