I just finished “Death Cult” (affiliate link), the second book in Declan Finn’s “Saint Tommy NYPD” Catholic horror series. And I will say this, if you don’t think Catholic horror is a thing – you haven’t read this series.
I began with the first book in the series – “Hell Spawn” (affiliate link). In this book Detective Tommy Nolan conducts an investigation into a serial killer, battles the MS-13 gang and has a violent show down with the demonic.
Book two (Death Cult) begins with a home invasion that threatens Tommy’s own family. From that point on, the book is almost nonstop action as Tommy goes head to head with zombies, the Women’s Health Core and a diabolical cult.
As a devout Catholic on the fast track to sainthood, Tommy has some pretty unusual supernatural abilities, including bilocation and the ability to smell evil. Thanks to his role as dedicated cop and family man, who relies on his faith to do a very difficult job, he is believable as well.
“Saint Tommy NYPD” is a true horror series including a high body count and some very violent scenes. In Death Cult, in fact, there is an abortion clinic scene so horrific it would be almost unbelievable – if the author hadn’t reminded us of the Kermit Gosnell case a bit earlier on.*
The only real complaint I had about the series was that the author uses the same prayer in one of his possession scenes that I use in my own unpublished book “Forest of Thorns” 🙂 Luckily, however, my book is far from finished so I have plenty of time to decide if I should swap out the prayer, or not.
Aside from that one small thing – I enjoyed both books and plan to continue on with the series!
I’m also going to be digging a little deeper into the genre of horror from a Catholic perspective in an upcoming post, so please check back.
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* Kermit Gosnell is a former MD who was convicted of killing one female patient and three infants who were born alive during late term abortions in his Philadelphia “house of horrors” abortion clinic. Many people question why the trial received so little media coverage relative to the horrific nature of the crimes. To read more about the media response to the Gosnell trial (and the movie that came after) please see the following article in the Courier Times. It is written by JD Mullane, the journalist who took the photo of the trial’s empty media seats in 2013 (below).
**Please note- this post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that if you purchase a book through one of my links I may earn a small commission.
