The Midnight Front: A Dark Arts Novel
In August 1939, an ocean liner carrying people fleeing the looming war in Europe for the U.S. is struck by a German torpedo—and a paranormal whirlpool complete with tentacled sea monster. All passengers die except Cade Martin who, after watching his parents killed, is saved by Adair Macrae and his assistants, adepts of the art of yoking Hell’s demons to do their bidding. Sixteen months later, Cade awakes in Adair’s Scottish castle, having been healed and ready to train to join this fight against a coven of adepts of similar skills on the other side of what has now become the London Blitz. The horrors of Auschwitz, Stalingrad, D-Day and the firebombing of Dresden are all explained as personal—and demonic—events of something evil versus good even bigger than that of Allies and Axis.
This is the first of what is set to be The Dark Arts series. As a previous NYT bestselling author of more than thirty books, Mack knows how to keep the pages turning with action and horror. Demonic battles are brilliantly, believably described, pacing with little time for planning or personal relationships. Different tastes for different readers. I have to say that my favorite scene was D-Day, the Normandy beaches being a zone where magick fireballs and ice lances do not work, in case you didn’t know. Horrific, real details.