Messenger by Edward Lee

"Messenger starts with bloody glee and ends with a whimper."

"For all its failings, the trip is worth the ride for its graphic sensuality and horrifying views."

Jane Ryan and Carlton Spence have been handed the reins to the new post office in growing Danelleton, Florida. Little do they know their little corner of paradise is about to go postal.

One of hell’s relics takes control of the minds and bodies of the post office’s finest, delivering the message that evil is alive and well and hungry for new souls. First, Carlton Spence, DPS manager, sets in motion a demonic chain reaction that infects one after another of the stable, hard working postal employees, spreading a trail of death and destruction that touches even the pampered rich wives of affluent and safe Danelleton, infecting them with salacious desires and a thirst for blood and death.

Enter Chief Steve Higgins who has seen this madness before. Jane Ryan barely keeps her head above water as her world collapses and Chief Higgins catches her in mid-fall just as the shadows fill with the sulfurous taste of hell.

Edward Lee’s Messenger starts with bloody glee and ends with a whimper. The tale of hell’s messenger using the post office to send a message is a wonderful twist complete with trips to the front lines of the wars in hell and a level of demonic madness that tops the charts. Characters are wrenched from their complacent lives and cast into the fiery pit laughing and writhing in ecstasy and the pictures of hell are nothing less than art. However, Lee loses his way, stopping the ride on top of the highest hill, sending everyone home unsatisfied. For all its failings, the trip is worth the ride for its graphic sensuality and horrifying views.
Reviewer: J. M. Cornwell