AustLit

'This devilish tale opens on a tiny speck of land in Queensland's beautiful Moreton Bay and ends in a fire-gutted church in South Brisbane. Scottish settlers in the 1800s named the tiny island Clootie, their Scottish name for Satan. A portal to Hell exists in a cave on Clootie. Blind Father Michael Brody lives with his dog Finn in Lime Bay on the foreshore of Moreton Bay. The priest was blinded six years ago by a demonic light when he attempted to wall off the Hell-gate to protect twelve year old Riley Kennedy from Asmodeus a powerful demon lord of Light who lusts for Riley's rare gift to converse with shadow beings. Riley is now eighteen years old and returns to Clootie on the Australia Day long weekend to exact vengeance for the murders of his mother and father by kelpie water-demons six years ago but the brick wall built by Father Brody to protect Riley is crumbling. Father Brody's demon fighting allies are; Finn his loyal cattle dog. Miriam, the spirit of a white witch, Merlin her cat and the Shadow Itzal who came from the Shadow world to guard Riley and his gift. Ranged against Father Brody is Asmodeus a powerful demon-lord with a demonic army and a dark magic cult. In struggles between Good and Evil the Good does not always emerge a victor as a group of visitors from Brisbane discover. Ben Stirling a business tycoon had no belief in the occult when he rented Hob House on Clootie for the holiday weekend. In his party are his business partner Jock McKee, Ben's widowed daughter Louise, his stepson Mitchell and Mitchell's glamourous unfaithful wife Tiffany and her latest 'friend' Simon Damone. As the body count rises Ben finally accepts reality of the occult on Clootie Island and he closes the Hell-gate in the cave with explosives. Asmodeus has a penchant for attractive red-haired human females and lovely flame-haired Louise Stirling is kidnapped by his human thrall to be a gift for his demon master, a wicked act that results in bloody sacrifice and a battle between Good and Evil to close another portal to Hell and this time the Hell-gate is in the ruins of a derelict church in Brisbane. Ben Stirling wonders how many more portals into Hell exist on Earth.' (Publication summary)