Growing up in a poor mill town in southern Louisiana taught John Stroud one thing: There’s no point in caring about a world that doesn’t care about you. Unfortunately for Stroud, the world of Woodville was always there, undeniable, oppressive, and inescapable, with absolutely no means of satisfying the ambitions bursting inside him. Effigy is the story of a man obsessed by power and the desire to manipulate reality for his own ends-a man who will do anything necessary to ensure that he gets what he wants. But all his desires lie thwarted and latent until fate presents him with the means to transcend not only his own past, but death itself-if only he can lay his cruel hands on it.