Waking Hours by Lis Wiehl

Welcome to East Salem. In this deceptively quiet town, old supernatural forces are awakening.

And they cannot be controlled.....

An East Salem high school girl is found murdered in a park amid horse farms and wealthy homes of northern Westchester County, New York. The manner of her death shocks the town and intrigues Dani Harris, forensic psychiatrist, who becomes determined to solve the mystery. All of the suspects were teenagers at the same party, yet none remember what happened. Is one of them the killer, or is the death linked to a darker, more ancient and sinister evil?


However, Dani is being plagued by her own nightmares. Each night at 2:13 Dani is awakened by troubling noises and dreams. Dreams of blood, water, and destruction. Is it a clue, or a supernatural sign?


Meanwhile former NFL linebacker Tommy Gunderson finds an elderly woman who has somehow breached his state of the art security system. Cursing at him in Latin, the woman attacks him with uncanny and unnatural strength. Before Tommy even has time to process the attack, someone close to him is implicated in the girl's murder at the park. Tommy agrees to help solve the murder, then finds himself working with Dani, the only girl who did not respond to his charms in high school.


Will Tommy and Dani be able to put past differences aside and solve this murder? And will they realize in time that they are a facing a deeper and darker evil than a mere human killer?


Waking Hours was a thrilling and scary roller coaster ride of a novel, filled with demonic murmurs and cold blooded killers. The tone of the novel was expertly done to leave the reader on the edge of their seat just waiting for the next unexpected turn or twist. The plot line of the novel was written very well and kept the reader guessing until the very end on the identity of the killer and whether Dani and Tommy would realize it in time. The undertone of the demonic forces at work in East Salem was very disturbing and brought to mind books on spiritual warfare. In the end, though the killer was found, the supernatural forces were still right under the surface, biding their time. These forces created a perfect cliff hanger for the next East Salem novel. Waking Hours by Lis Wiehl was an excellent, though dark read, and I cannot wait for her next novel.


I received this novel for free from Booksneeze.com and Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for an honest review.