Pact of the Fathers by Ramsey Campbell

From the Publisher

Daniella Logan, daughter of a film impresario, is stunned to see a group of robed men performing a ritual above the newly-turned earth of her father's grave. Daniella's father and his friends--politicians, newspaper magnates, highly-paid actors, top-flight surgeons, high-ranking police officials, and many more--are bound by an unholy blood pact that calls for the sacrifice of their first born children. Now, the more she learns, the more Daniella makes herself a target. But she must not be silenced, for she is not the only firstborn in danger, only the oldest.

Publishers Weekly

A father's betrayal of his child and a heritage of horror on a potentially biblical scale propel the plot of this absorbing new thriller from a leading laureate of terror fiction. Acting student Daniella Logan is devoted to her father, and this adds to her burden of grief when he dies in a suspicious car crash at the novel's outset. The night of his funeral she inadvertently frightens a coven of knife-wielding men away from their inscrutable ritual at his graveside. Daniella's stubborn persistence investigating both events leads to the unsettling discovery that her dad may not have been the man she thought he was and worse, that his surviving friends are inexplicably conspiring to silence her. En route to the revelation of their unthinkable motives, she uncovers an ominous pattern of child deaths in their families, chances on an alternate exegesis of myths of pagan sacrifice encoded in the Bible, and endures a stay in the Greek Islands that turns slowly from safe refuge to menacing imprisonment in the company of one of her father's most dependable cronies. Campbell (Silent Children) tantalizes the reader with irresistible hints of occult machinations, but his true achievement is the depiction of Daniella's hitherto secure world dissolving into a paranoid nightmare where the people whom she depends on most prove the ones she can least trust. The novel's sinister B-movie imagery and sleekly paced frights put a dark gloss on what is ultimately a haunting reflection on the differences that painfully divide parents from children and the intransigence of the older and younger generations. (Dec. 13) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Brenda Moses-Allen - VOYA

British university student Daniella Logan sees twelve men holding bright objects in their hands while standing over the grave of her recently buried father, Teddy Logan. Her renowned film director father died in a car crash because of his drunk driving, a conclusion that Daniella cannot accept because he never drove when he drank. Teddy's business partner informs Daniella that her father's finances are under investigation, and the local police chief, who also is a family friend, tries to persuade her to forget what she saw at the graveyard. Several puzzling and terrifying events occur—one of Teddy's associates gruesomely is killed, Daniella finds a strangely elaborate knife in her father's grave, she is attacked savagely, the knife and a book titled The Bible Decoded are stolen. They serve to increase greatly Daniella's suspicions and her friends' concern for her well-being. After escaping from a mental hospital into which she is thrust and determining the significance of the book, with the help of a male friend Daniella slowly pieces together the horrifyingly bizarre correlation between her father and his associates and the human sacrifice stories in the Bible. Campbell's languid style of describing every detail of scenery and mannerism reads like a movie script and gives this modern day Perils of Pauline a slow beginning. There is little discussion of sex and only one gritty scene in which the associate's ghastly death is described. The fairly predictable plot offers many hints and clues that allow seasoned mystery or suspense fans to surmise the outcome, and the interesting discussion of the Bible could draw some high school readers. VOYA CODES: 3Q 2P S A/YA (Readable without seriousdefects; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2001, Forge, 432p,

Kirkus Reviews

Once again, suspense pro Campbell (Silent Children, 2000, etc.) remains masterfully amusing and intriguing-until his final pages. Smart dialogue and warm family detail suck the reader willingly in. Young heroine Daniella Logan, 20, is daughter of film producer Teddy Logan, an American in England who, along with his partner Alan Stanley, runs Oxford Films. Teddy has a row of Oscars for his later films, though he began with horror flicks before turning to "uplift." Daniella, a psychology student, faces the sudden shock of her father's death in an automobile accident, plus the fact that she may inherit his half of Oxford Films when she comes of age at 22-and that Teddy has made some very bad financial moves that may cost her and other possible inheritors (should she die prematurely) possession of the studio. The day he died, her father opened his safe and gave her some money, at which time she spied a strange box-a box that now has vanished, as has a special book behind his desk, The Bible Decoded. Nancy Drew-like, Daniella searches for the lost box and book and then finds out that a number of deaths turn on some gleaming knives, one of which she finds buried on her father's grave-where, moreover, she also found a circle of robed strangers performing some kind of ceremony. As it happens, the title and jacket give away the story's main secret: that several big business magnates the likes of Teddy and others belong to a bloody group that believes the Bible has told them that they will ensure success if they sacrifice their first-born-with knives, if necessary, and on an altar, although some first-borns die in other ways. Since we already deduce most of this, the plot attenuates intotissue-thin melodrama in the last chapters. Still, Campbell's fans will find much to their taste-and Daniella immensely likable.

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