For years, Palmwood Church prospered under the leadership of Gary Folmer alongside other pastors and became the community church. Palmwood Church was in good shape. It even had a school and a congregation of four hundred people. The Folmers were not perfect, but they lived in harmony until their car hit a deer and all hell broke loose. As Dalton, Gary’s son, approached his teens, a witch began to torment him with nightmares and hallucinations. Before long, she added his brother, James, to her list of victims. However, the witch waited until Dalton’s thirteenth birthday before she preyed. And boy, did she prey hard! James went down with convulsions as Dalton received an ultimatum: he must rescue his brother’s soul before dawn, or she gets it permanently. Dalton is being tortured for now, but who will ultimately be the prey? Read Prey Without Ceasing by Andrew Franks to find out.

Prey Without Ceasing by Andrew Franks is a constant barrage of psychological torture that ends in bliss. Thrilling and suspenseful, I got hooked right from the start, even as my heart thumped for fear of Dalton’s safety. It might seem like a contradiction, but the plot was inspirational even though it contained some horrific scenes. There’s nothing to dislike about this book. It is easy to read, properly edited, and also has expressive chapter titles, which Andrew cunningly weaves into the plot. At one hundred and three pages, I expected little character building in this book, but I was wowed when Andrew added another layer to the narrator’s character by shifting the point of narration from third person to first person. I also liked that it was narrated in a way that doesn’t trivialize spiritual warfare. Therefore, I recommend it to people—especially teenagers—who like mystical stuff and don’t mind some horror.

Prey Without Ceasing is a work of fiction in the horror, thriller, and action subgenres. It is aimed at the mature reading audience and was penned by author Andrew Franks. The book follows the central protagonist Dalton, a man who is keen to help his church and his family in any way that he can. After Dalton’s brother is taken by a witch, the dark past of his family comes to light and Dalton must fight against the evil that has been chasing members of his family for years. As the battle wages on, his family’s past may drag him to hell quicker than any witch could.

This is a concise but impactful work of horror that conveys a masterclass in how to pack an intense punch. Grounded as it is in the experience of a character from an evangelical background, the depiction of the dark occult alongside the religious insights elevated the horror concepts well above the sum of their parts. Author Andrew Franks’s creation absorbs the reader from the opening line with its depiction of a soul lost in the intensity and hypocrisy of a church community. If the book had simply been about Dalton’s relationship with his faith and community there would still have been a great deal of deep and philosophical story to tell, but the addition of supernatural horror elements turns Prey Without Ceasing into a deeply-involved and relentless journey into the mysteries of the soul that will keep a reader enraptured from beginning to end.