The Right Hand of Evil (Mass Market Paperback)

The small town of St. Albans doesn't welcome the Conways. The communities' memories and rumors of the wrongs and evils perpetrated by the Conways extends even to the children. The house is said to be haunted. Certainly something evil exists within its foundations, a miasma that aims to mutilate and destroy that which is good or innocent. Ted's remarkable healing as result of the touch of evil will cost both his own soul, and possibly the soul of his son.

The estranged Aunt Cora who passed the house to Ted also passed the family bible to the parish priest. Within its pages are the recordings of the generations of Conway women who know the secret of the house's evil. As father Devlin discovers the tragic stories and locates the missing pages, the generations of evil begun at the hands of a priest lead him to the Conway house to aid the fight against a monstrous evil.

Having checked out the many of reviews at, I find it interesting that the higher marks come from readers like myself who haven't read a lot of John Saul's work. THE RIGHT HAND OF EVIL heavy grounding in Catholicism and Satanism won't be to everyone's taste, nevertheless, I found Saul's approach fascinating and addictive. The convoluted and twisted plot kept the pages turning quickly, and I find the origin of the evil within the Conway house fascinating. A remarkable tale in detail, such as the painted garden in the dining room, and rich characterization, I recommend THE RIGHT HAND OF EVIL.

The Conways have been cursed. A trust means that they had to live in that old abandoned house in which rumours of death, evil and conspiracy had spread through the generations in the little town of St. Alban.

Janet's husband, Ted Conway, recovers from his decade long problem of drinking overnight and Jared, their eldest son, takes a turn from his twin sister, someone who was his closest friend since their birth. What's really going on?

I broke my own personal record by finishing this book within 10 hours. After reading the 1st 12 chapters, I did not want to stop. The story was very smooth flowing; the plot simple yet mysterious. The main characters were thoroughly developed and the words painted a totally spooky house of horror.

I was chilled within those first chapters and wanted to get to the bottom of the terror as quickly as I could. Very enjoyable.

There's a story behind the history of the house, of course, one going back over a century (no surprise here; the whole ancient curse theme is Saul's trademark plot point). We gradually learn exactly what has taken place in the house, but this particular puzzle has few pieces missing to begin with. The tenor of things to come is never really in doubt, although I have no real criticism of the conclusion, which Saul pulled off fairly well. Saul goes all the way this time to give us the ultimate Evil, but his efforts were not quite up to the lofty challenge. There are some suspenseful moments, but Saul replays them often enough to make them rather banal in the end. Character development is rather interesting, particularly in terms of the Catholic priests. My impressions of the priests were made to change a little too quickly and easily, prompting me to wonder just when it had happened. As for the Conway family, I liked daughter Kim, but I could hardly have cared less about the others, particularly Ted and Jared. Since I didn't invest a lot of interest in Saul's characters, I never really cared how the novel might end.

There are a few scenes that are sure to bother animal lovers such as myself, so I want to mention that fact here. I always cringe when I see an animal in a Saul novel because animals rarely fare too well in this writer's narratives. Ultimately, I will say that this novel is just a little too derivative of Saul's other fiction, and this time around there is no real zing that certain other of his narratives have. If you've never read John Saul before, you will probably enjoy this novel a lot more than those of us are familiar with his work. John Saul is a talented writer who knows how to tell a story well, and that counts for a lot, but this novel, which aspires to much, falls short of its mark and never really sinks its claws into the heart and mind of the reader.