The Key: Book 1

by Timothy Weatherall

Overview

Death has come to the woods surrounding an isolated northern mining town. It is the night of Christmas 1960, and what Joe Magister is about to encounter on the road will leave him forever changed and bring him face to face with his true heritage. What he will come to learn is that no truth is as simple as what is taught in church. Angels and demons; Heaven and Hell; good versus evil-none of it is as it seems. And when a marriage of old souls is put asunder there are consequences that must be paid.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781460266304
Publisher:	FriesenPress
Publication date:	07/09/2015
Series:	Incarnations of Joe
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Timothy Weatherall lives in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, with his wife Melissa and his two sons Aidan & Christian, The Incarnations of Joe: The Key is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

2015-11-04
An intriguing supernatural tale in which a young man uncovers a hidden truth about his heritage. At the start of Weatherall's tense and atmospheric debut, the first in a projected series, the Magister family—17-year-old Joe; his mother, Madeline; and his loutish, alcoholic stepfather, Will—are driving through a snowstorm in Ontario's remote Nahanni Valley when they accidentally hit a wolf on the road. The year is 1960, long before GPS or cellphones, and Joe's stepfather drives off from the impact without a second thought. Joe, however, agonizes at the thought of the wounded animal out there in the dark. He slips away from home late that night intent on finding the wolf—and finding in the process much more than he expected. When he finally stumbles back home, he's changed—immune to cold, tireless, and preternaturally perceptive. In subsequent days, he encounters a mysterious woman named Tereene who unfolds to him not only his true nature, but also the supernatural underpinnings of reality itself, in which, she explains, souls get stronger as they age and feed on emotions, eventually becoming powerful, angel-like beings, but even so, as his own personal transformation continues, Joe wonders if he's given his soul to the devil. Weatherall manipulates the many moving parts of this new cosmology with skill and economy. His simply evil characters tend to feel a bit pat, and Joe's journey from innocent youth to otherworldly warrior is one readers of horror fantasy have seen many times before. But the tale is told with vigor and conviction nonetheless. The novel's spiritual world—where traditional notions of good and evil are richly confused and complicated—is one the reader must navigate right alongside Joe. A promising first installment in a strange blend of theological horror.

Kirkus Reviews