Jake’s Wake

John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow

Leisure Books / Dorchester Publishing 2008

Jake Connaway is a thoroughly sadistic and evil man. Although he makes his living as a televangelist (something at which he is quite successful) in private he uses his charisma to dominate then degrade members of his flock. The women especially suffer, for Jake has a sexual magnetism that keeps them coming back for more even as they see themselves going downhill.

Jake is quite at ease with his dual personality. “…this was the message the blackness brought him: that he was born to lead, to carry that dark torch, put an end to the false light forever and ever. That he had been right about this all along, and that Christ had always been wrong”.

Then Jake is stabbed to death, caught with his pants down by the boyfriend of a girl he is currently working on. Free of his overpowering charisma, his victims can now see what they have become. Although some women still harbour a certain fondness for him based on their sexual memories, most are happy to see him gone. Now they must sort out the mess that their lives have become, and the financial ruin of the families and the church that Jake established. Some victims gather at Jake’s house, where they start to learn from each other something about how this vile man manipulated each of them.

Then Jake returns from the dead. His embalmed corpse climbs out of its coffin, slaughters the funeral people, and comes home.

“Jake was dead for three days. Then he got up. It was not a miracle, but a mockery of the resurrection, and a desecration of the body that had been so powerful a messenger for God’s word, in life.”

In death Jake is even more powerful. Now he is immortal he does not need to restrain himself, and the spree of depraved cruelty and torture that follows is far worse than anything Jake did in his life. Although his victims were originally attracted to him because he rekindled their belief in God, now that belief is being tested to the maximum. How many will be found inadequate? Is there any power in Heaven or Hell that can stop Jake’s vicious rampage?

For what should be technically called a splatter zombie story, this is the best suspense book I have read for quite a while. It holds you right to the surprising ending, at which point you feel glad it’s over. The descriptions of Jake’s bloody rampage are vivid and frightening, but appropriate to the story. It’s definitely not a book for the easily upset.

This review will appear in Volume 2:1 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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