Hags

Horror abounds as This Present Darkness meets The Blair Witch Project in Paul R. Lloyd’s thriller Hags. Micah Probert, who spent 15 years in prison for a rape he says he didn’t commit, returns to his hometown of Naperville, Illinois, on a quest to prove his innocence and find meaning in a so-far meaningless life. On his first day back, he discovers a human-sized faerie flitting about in his backyard, a dead body in the parking lot behind his house, a pioneer ghost in his kitchen, and a local coffee shop that serves the darkest roast this side of Hades.

The suspense mounts at the local coffee shop, where Micah learns that his former high school sweetheart is a barista. She not only tells him that she hates him, but hates all men for what he was convicted of doing to her younger sister. And the coffee shop is where Micah runs into the sister who has her own dark secret to confess.

But the fast-paced action cranks up as the police single out Micah as a suspected serial killer. And Micah learns that the beautiful young woman living next door to his fixer-upper, the girl he has just started dating, may actually be a witch as wicked as any from medieval times. And this hag is aligned with a powerful demon posing as a local philanthropist. As the body count mounts, will Micah heed the call to spiritual warfare with the evil forces mounted against him in time to save the city of Naperville from two serial killers? And will he figure out that a second hag is secretly out to destroy him? Suspense fiction told in Paul R. Lloyd’s unique mix of noir and humor.