Readers will be talking about 'Paradise Prophecy'

Robert Browne produces a novel that reads like an amalgam of Jim Butcher and Dan Brown in “The Paradise Prophecy.” In this thriller, the War in Heaven has come to Earth, and mankind will soon be extinct.

The cast of characters includes Sebastian LaLaurie, a theologian who developed a drinking problem after the death of his wife, and Bernadette Callahan, who works for the U.S. government and is starting to lose all sense of reality.

When Callahan is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of a popular young singer in Brazil, her life will be changed forever.

LaLaurie is teamed up with Callahan when it appears that the singer was murdered and that others have fallen prey to a killer with seemingly supernatural abilities. Their investigation leads them to a secret organization with the sole purpose of keeping ancient documents like a lost chapter of Milton's “Paradise Lost” and several missing pages from a book called the “Devil's Bible” hidden from the beings that could use them to destroy the world.

“The Paradise Prophecy” is hard to describe. The unfolding events become more fantastical, and it's sometimes difficult to tell one demon from the other. The initial transition to the supernatural is also a bit jarring. However, once the reader adjusts to the novel's tone and scope, the pages cannot fly by fast enough.

The shocking end will compel everyone to want to talk about the reading experience with others as much as Browne seems to be hinting at more to come. Readers of horror and dark fantasy should consider a dip into the Robert Browne pool.

<b>“The Paradise Prophecy”</b>

By Robert Browne

Dutton, 416 pages, $25.95