Author: Kathryn Mackel 

ISBN: 0785262296

 The following review was contributed by: E.Dian Moore &  To read more about Dian Moore’s reviews click HERE

To read Dian's interview with the author CLICK HERE

Contact with the "other side" wreaks havoc.

What do you do when your husband becomes famous overnight for his ability to talk to the other side? Until now, Joshua Lazarus has relied on modern technology and human nature to give messages to those left behind from those who have departed this world through death. Basically—a con game. But when a chance eavesdropping reveals to Josh the power of an entity of the occult, he begins to dabble in the dark world, believing he is, indeed, a messenger for the departed.

 Left behind in the wake of her husband's fast rise to fame, young Maggie Lazarus looks for a way to occupy herself and becomes involved with Amy Howland, a servant of Christ providing care for children in a neighborhood taken over by a sinister force—a force that wants her gone—a force that calls itself the Astaroths and worship Satan.

 Mackel keeps the pages turning as Josh falls deeper into the abyss of the occult, while Maggie tries to escape this influence and save her husband, too. A first-class "Christian Chiller," as the cover of Departed reads, it has all the elements of a good suspense novel and blends them together flawlessly. Evil is exposed and the battle with Good escalates until the last scene, a dilly of a suspense scene.  

 The Departed is unique in today's modern world of acceptance of those things of the occult, including psychics, communication with the dead, and other things forbidden by the Bible. This book dives into both sides and shows how easy it is to be drawn into the seduction of evil as it plays against human emotions of love, fear, loss, hopelessness and hope.

 The deterioration of a father, whose daughter died because of one of Josh's "messages," is a fascinating character on his own—one who both repels and inspires compassion. When he teams up with Theo, the leader of the Astaroths, who is determined to possess the house Amy Howland operates, the terror factor rises notch by notch.

 Maggie's introduction to Christianity is well done and not contrived and her subsequent attempts to bring Josh to the realization he is going against God are well done. You can "see" the desperation of both characters to prove each other wrong. Mackel keeps her characters and situations real—a factor that adds to the creepy, but correct, rating.

 Mackel is a screenwriter for Disney and Fox, and the author of The Surrogate, another thriller. She also writes a series of middle grade books under the pen name of Kathy Mackel.