Novel Explores Dark Side of 'Moral Values'

A deadly outbreak of the holier-than-thou syndrome wreaks havoc across deepest Kansas in Riley Evans' novel, Devil May Care.

(PRWEB) November 21, 2004

Riley Evans wasn’t thinking of politics or ‘moral values’ when he wrote his suspense novel, Devil May Care. Recent events have left him wondering whether his fiction comes uncomfortably close to fact.

“Devil May Care is a crime novel,” Evans says, “entirely fictional, in which the murderers justify their crimes as the will of the Lord.” Evans explains, “The book was released in 2004, but it took shape over several years. When I started writing it, I could never have imagined a day in which the politics of our country would be driven by moralistic religious zeal.”

The novel’s villain, Reverend Jack Jackson, is a charismatic, body-building televangelist who twists an obscure passage from the Bible into a warped theology that leads his followers to commit unspeakable crimes. “At the same time,” Evans says, “the murderous reverend justifies his own acts of lechery and mayhem as part of a plan that comes to him through his delusional personal relationship with God.”

“Strictly entertainment,” was the purpose of the novel, Evans says, “and not current events. Maybe I had these attitudes more in mind because I live in rural Kansas, the heart of the heart of the Bible belt.”

“In this part of the country,” Evans says, “the political ascendency of the Christian Right is taken for granted as a natural development.” If Evans had anticipated the rise of ‘moral values’ in American politics, would he have written the novel differently? “Probably not,” he says. “It’s a commonplace among fiction writers that nothing we can make up will be as strange as what really happens in life.”

Devil May Care is available through all commercial book outlets and may be purchased with a 43%, publisher-direct discount from publisher Storwright Books at http://www.storywrightbooks.com.

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