Jake’s Wake by John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow

". . . another visceral trip through the inky darkness and blood-tinged shadows of the human heart . . ."

Jake Connaway is a con man who finds his niche as a televangelist with a vast and loyal following. Jake meets his death at the hands of a jealous boyfriend with a knife in his back and his pants down around his knees. But death won’t keep Jake Connaway down and out for long.

Esther, Pastor Jake’s wife, invites two of Jake’s flock, Emmy and Evangeline, to Jake’s wake to discuss financial matters so she can keep the home where she grew up. Born and raised by hippie parents who built a school and a lifestyle that made her very attractive to Jake Connaway, Esther has turned to alcohol and a handyman, Eddie, to keep her company and ease the burden of Pastor Jake’s financial and sexual excesses. As the three women and the men who stand by them discuss the future, Pastor Jake rises from the dead and comes home to begin his new ministry, a ministry of resurrection. He brings his enforcer to help hammer his message home, trailing demons and corruption in his wake.

With his usual in-your-face blood and guts, Jack Skipp wastes no time coloring in the background as he plunges directly into the heart of corruption and violence in Jake’s Wake. In partnership with Cody Goodfellow, Jake’s Wake is a phantasmagoric trip through death, resurrection, vengeance and hope, cutting a bloody swath through a nightmare world between dusk and dawn.

Goodfellow adds subtle depth and weight to Skipp’s philosophical musings about religion and the nature of good and evil while helping twist the bloody knife deep into horror’s vitals. Jake’s Wake has a surprising complexity that ensures the team of Skipp and Goodfellow a new audience eager for another visceral trip through the inky darkness and blood-tinged shadows of the human heart and soul of the horror genre.

Reviewer: J. M. Cornwell