DEMON'S SORROW is a (whodunit/mystery/horror) supernatural thriller in the vein of STIR OF ECHOES and THE SIXTH SENSE.
In a town where crime is virtually unknown the gruesome and violent death of Lyndsay Abbott turns neighbor against neighbor, cop against cop, and son against father. Until her killer is found and brought to vengeance, the town of Whitefields, Michigan is destined to be terrified by a chain of bizarre and grisly murders.
Tommy Rogers first meets Lyndsay while exploring the forest behind his house with his dog, Bruiser in the spring. She eventually leads Tommy to her decomposed corpse deep in the wood. Lyndsay is on a mission now that she’s freed from the forest and Tommy grudgingly agrees to help track down her murderer.
Tommy manages to make friends with the town’s new Chief of Police, Tony Morman, who is having problems of his own trying to determine if the sudden rash of strange deaths are murder or something else.
A close relationship develops between the Chief and Tommy’s mother, and all the while Whitefields native-son Captain Robbins of the Michigan State Police watches in the background. Tommy’s father, Alex Rogers, is the center of the investigation with a history of domestic violence and alcohol abuse.
Excerpt
Tommy woke sometime in the early hours of morning. An eerie sound pulled him from the comforting depths of sleep.
“Bruiser,” he whispered into the night as a shiver crept up his spine. Tommy's first thought was of monsters in the forest, then his thoughts shifted to memories of another night not so long ago when his father crept up the stairs, the night his nightmare became real.
Tommy remembered his father's voice sounding especially loud that night. He’d tried to block the sound of their argument, but when Anna's cry of pain was cut short by a loud thump, Tommy was out of bed, and racing blindly to his parent’s bedroom.
His mother was on the floor, knees drawn to protect her face and stomach from the blows his father rained upon her. Dad's face was red with rage as he drew his foot back to deliver yet another brutal gift, at that moment something in Tommy snapped and he attacked. His small hands beat air as his father held him by the hair at arm's length.
Tommy heard his mother's screams, but, before she could react, his father surprised them all by picking Tommy up and, screaming curses at the boy, threw him across the room into the bedroom wall.
Before darkness claimed him Tommy thought proudly, at least I got him to stop hitting Mommy.
Outside Bruiser continued to howl softly. Mom said it was because he was related to wolves, which Tommy thought was pretty cool, and everyone knows wolves howl at the moon. Turning his head slightly, Tommy saw the full moon shining through his bedroom window.
Cool or not, the sound was still a little scary, so he pulled the sheet over his head. Dad couldn’t come back because Mom had something called a peace-of-bond on him, and he wasn’t allowed near Tommy, or Mom, or even near the house 'cause the cops would put him in jail if he did. As he lay watching the shadows from the bright moonlight through the sheet the boy thought of monsters in the forest and realized that the scariest monster of all was the one that took possession of his father the night he’d beat and kicked Anna and threw Tommy into the wall.
In the end they'll all be dancin'--all them ones that didn't die.... Dance with me in the shadows amidst the lightning and the thunder, and all that nu-cu-lar debris. See the big bang from the other side, and then open that cellar door. Go down into
