New Novel Stirs the Quiet of a Small Town

This new novel will particularly interest fans of small-town crime fiction. The serial killing of illegitimate newborn infants is prompted by the delusions of people who place their faith in an unhinged television minister, himself the killer of a teenage mistress. Add the doings of a local band of Satanists, and you have cross-current of mayhem that baffles and mortally endangers ambitious Kansas State Police Field Agent Nikki OKeefe.

(PRWEB) July 22, 2004 -- Peace, quiet and religion, those Midwest mainstays, are like a quilt covering the unspeakable in Riley Evans novel, Devil May Care.

Nikki OKeefe, a field agent for the Kansas State Police, discovers a hidden grave site with the skeletons of six newborn infants. A day later, hunters in a nearby field find the remains of a teenage girl. Investigating these crimes puts Nikki into the path of The Reverend Jack Jackson, an evangelist and body-builder who promotes a gospel of perfect body and perfect soul.

The book is as much about Nikkis frustrations as about the solving of the crimes. Shes tangled in romantic conflicts with two men, haunted by guilt about the damage her ambition has done to people shes loved, and thwarted in her career by the sexist policies of her supervisors.

Revered Jacks delusions bring another force into the book. His belief that he is one of Gods anointed clashes with his need for money and illicit sex. When he is forced to confront the disasters caused by his preaching and his transgressions, his disillusionment becomes deadly.

Riley Evans is the pen name of a lawyer whose experience lends authenticity to the story. One hot summer afternoon," Evans says, I was early for an appointment in a small Kansas town. As I drove around killing time, I passed a revival hall on the campus of a defunct bible college. The revival hall is still in use. Its a big old white barn of a place, with slatted walls that can be rolled out to leave it open to the air. A revival was in progress. I remember an old gentleman who was fanning himself and rocking contentedly to the rhythm of the preacher."
    
On that same trip," Evans says, I picked up a copy of the local weekly newspaper and noticed several classified ads placed by couples in other states seeking to adopt babies from unwed mothers. The way I write is to begin with a few facts or images that interest me, and then begin making things up. Before I quite knew it, I had the Reverend Jack Jackson and his cast of supporting characters on my hands."

Evans has published short fiction. Devil May Care is his first novel. The book is available online and at local bookstores.

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