The First Word came with Cain, who killed the first child of man. The Third Word was Pharaoh’s instruction to the midwives. The Fifth Word was carried from Herod to Bethlehem. One of the Lost Words dwelt among the Aztecs and hungered after their children. Evil hides behind starched white masks. The ancient Aztec demon now conducts his affairs in the sterile environment of corporate medical facilities. An insatiable hunger draws the demon to a sleepy Louisiana hamlet. There, it contracts the services of a young attorney, Jim David, whose unborn child is the ultimate object of the demon’s designs.

Monsignor, a mysterious priest of unknown age and origin, labors unseen to save the soul of a small town hidden deep within Louisiana’s plantation country, nearly forgotten in a bend of the Mississippi River.

You’ll be gripped from start to heart-stopping finish in this page-turning thriller from new author S.L. Smith.

With roots in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this horror novel reads like Stephen King’s classic stories of towns being slowly devoured by an unseen evil and the people who unite against it.

The book is set in southern Louisiana, an area the author brings to life with compelling detail based on his local knowledge.