Darkness Rising: East Salem Novel by Lis Wiehl and Pete Nelson

The evil in East Salem is no longer content to hide in the shadows. The stakes—and the darkness—are rising.

Dani Harris thought there wasn’t much left that could surprise her after serving as a forensic psychiatrist in East Salem. And Tommy Gunderson has faced few challenges in his life that he couldn’t overcome by either physical strength or his celebrity status.

But as they race to uncover what’s really happening behind the high walls of St. Adrian’s Academy, it becomes clear that supernatural forces have been at work here for generations. And now their focus is on making sure Dani and Tommy don’t interfere.

When the unseen becomes seen, faith is the only weapon strong enough to fight in a battle involving not just murder and betrayal—but angels and demons.

Darkness Rising by Lis Wiehl and Pete Nelson is the second novel in the East Salem Trilogy. Occurring only a few months after the first novel, Waking Hours, the plot line flows quickly and never stops moving. The plot is exciting, action packed, and filled with suspenseful moments.  Some important facts are revealed to the reader in the first few chapters, but the characters do not realize what is going on until near the end of the book. This causes the reader to be literally on the edge of their seat waiting to discover if the characters will unveil the truth in time. The story is told alternatively between Dani and Tommy's point of view. There are also a couple of other characters who are focused on from time to time. These changing perspectives allow the reader to have a greater understanding and wider view of the situations at hand.

The characters in Darkness Rising were interesting and had their flaws. I felt like there was less character development in this novel than in the first one. I did not learn very much that was new about Dani Harris nor Tommy Gunderson, and the new characters that entered this novel only received the merest of development. However, there were still some interesting elements of the story related to the characters, and the interactions between the characters were entertaining and added to the plot. Some of the characters did have unexpected roles or changes in the story, and other characters' flaws and strengths were made more apparent.

Darkness Rising deals significantly more with demons, demon possession, and angel-demonic warfare than the first novel did. Some of these aspects were interesting, but I was put off by many of Lis Wiehl's assumptions about spiritual warfare and how demons and angels interact with humans. I do not want to ruin the story for anyone, but there was one time in particular in this story where I completely disagree with Lis Wiehl's view on demon possession. Suffice it to say, I could not find any biblical support for that type of demon possession, and I found plenty of biblical references that indicate that it cannot occur.

Overall, I found Darkness Rising to be an incredibly interesting and nail biting read that I was glued to for several hours. My only warning would be to read it carefully and evaluate the ideas and concepts wisely from what you know.

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