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The practice has been revived with the publication of Roger Elwood's Without the Dawn, an inexpensive six-book suspense series to be released one per month, April through September. The story will also be produced and released in the same sequence on audio.
How Soon the Serpent, Book 1, introduces an aristocratic British family and their discovery of a sinister plot that threatens all mankind. As the book opens, sisters Clarice and Sarah Fothergill are at the family villa in Switzerland, where Sarah accidentally learns that bubonic plague is being spread by infected rats dropped at points around the world. The sisters want to stay in their remote setting but feel they must return to England.
Their view of world calamity enlarges and the involvement of the "dark side of the Internet" becomes clear after their return. Readers meet their mother Elizabeth, their dying grand-father, and their father Cyril who convinces the prime minister of impending disaster. Cyril is sent on a secret mission by sea to the Pope, and during the trip, witnesses the death of a mother whale to save her young.
It is about this point that readers begin to suspect the technique of shaping different chapters after the work of different great novelists in English and American literature, e.g., Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Charlotte Bronte. And just for good measure, Elwood adds a dash of Frank Peretti, Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye.
Book 2, Valley of the Shadow takes place in Rome after Cyril's arrival. The plot winds tighter both on a personal level in regard to Cyril's anger at this father and on a world level as rats actually invade the Vatican Square. Here readers are reminded of a Morris West novel.
Elwood has worked as an assistant director at an entertainment center in California, and his ability to infuse drama into writing is obvious. His first book, published in 1964, was about satanism, demonology, and witchcraft. It was selected as one of the hundred best Christian books ever written by the Christian News Service. For more than 30 years, he has continued to write for many Christian publishers and to receive awards.
Will Sarah Fothergill become ill from having been touched by a dying man? Will her mother Elizabeth die before Cyril returns from Rome? Will rats overrun the Vatican? Stay tuned. Books 3-6 will all be available by September.
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