“Devil’s Night” is a tedious tale of mundane mystery. One paragraph late in career journalist Todd Ritter’s third novel made “Devils Night” a two star read as opposed to a zero star read.
Ritter claims not all pentagrams are not satanic. Wiccan is another name for a pentagram and its five points represent the cycle of life. The top point being a higher power and the other points being the four elements, Earth, air, water and fire. A Wiccan is also a symbol of protection against evil. Halloween is the Wiccan new year also known as Samhain, it’s Celtic. Other then this enticement to my imagination, this book is a bumbling barrage of lame characters and a weak plot.
Police chief Kat Campbell is on the hunt to find Constance Bishop’s killer and stop a string of arsons in her town of Perry Hollow, Pa.
The town’s museum, hotel, recreation center and library are all but destroyed by fire and dynamite. Was Bishop murdered because she knew about to arsons ahead of time and wanted to stop them? Were the arsons done because certain high end town officials could make millions in insurance dollars? Was the arsons revenge from some of the town’s ancestors from the late 1600s who delved in witchcraft or simply wanted justice from murders committed well over 300 years ago?
The witchcraft theory stems from old human bones found in the crevasses’ of Perry Hollow’s museum. Around 1682 the bones found in Perry Hollow’s museum were engulfed in the flesh of Rebecca Bradford who lived in the same town which had a different name then. Bradford and her four sisters were burned alive because Christian folk deemed Bradford to be a witch for saving a young boys life. The boy was near death due to illness and Bradford treated him with herbs from her garden and the boy made what doctors called a miraculous recovery.
As one old adage states; ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’ The town’s then judge, William Daniel Paul freed Bradford with a not guilty verdict of being a witch. The town Christians ignored their own book (the Bible) which clearly states to obey the laws of man and Gods commandment 'thou shall not kill'. OK, another cool point made by Ritter; amazing how ‘good’ Christian people cast untruths with such ease and cunning.
So “Devil’s Night” is and average two and half star read. The three possible conclusions were not weighty enough to pull in the readers interests and every character was nothing but a number. Ritter could have named each person in his latest book 000-00-0000, 000-00-0001, 00-00-0002 and so on.
There was nothing to love, lust, like or hate about all of the women in the story. The male characters were equally uninteresting and as compelling as a spec of dust in the farthest corner of and attic.
