The Chosen Child

In Warsaw to oversee the construction of a new hotel, executive Sarah Leonard joins forces with Polish police detective Stefan Rej to investigate a series of bizarre murders plaguing the construction site, only to encounter a serial killer known as the Executioner, who could be the result of a Nazi-breeding program gone wrong or the embodiment of a century-old urban legend. 15,000 first printing.

Amazon.com Review

No sooner does Warsaw slip the shackles of communism and open its arms to capitalism's promise than along slides a remnant of its darkest past (yesterday, the 1940s, or the 1600s, depending), heaving spanners into the works. And headless spanners, at that. Six decapitated corpses with nothing in common aside from death have lately littered Warsaw. That's all the much-suffering, chain-smoking Komisarz Stefan Rej has to go on until the seventh corpse, a radio commentator and outspoken critic of the U.S.-based Senate International Hotels, shows up in the excavated hole that will soon house the multimillion dollar Warsaw Senate Hotel. For Sarah Leonard, the Senate International Hotel's beautiful and bullheaded VP in charge of construction, time is money, and the chain's losing both in spades because workers have refused to enter the site until "the Executioner," as the media has dubbed him, or "the demon," as the workers call him, is apprehended. "I don't believe this! These are grown men and this is the middle of the most modern city in eastern Europe. And they're afraid of a devil?" Brzezicki said, "You don't think it's strange that they believe in God, do you? Why should you think it's strange that they believe in devils?" "Oh, spare me," said Sarah. Desperate for resolution, Sarah imports Clayton Marsh, a retired, brilliant Chicago police inspector, and a gang of German replacement workers, three of whom are quickly frappéd to a fare-thee-well at Sarah's well-shod feet. After several more murders, two séances, a number of sewer chases, some Nazi-era flashbacks, a botched exorcism, and a dash of East-meets-West hootchy- kootchy, the unlikely trio (Sarah, Rej, and Marsh) bring Graham Masterton's 28th novel to a more-or-less satisfying, if not wholly definitive, close. Fun? Yes. Grisly? Absolutely. Engaging? Mostly. A masterpiece of plot and pacing? Hardly, but most entertainment isn't, and despite its shortcomings, The Chosen Child is roundly entertaining. --Michael Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

Masterton (Prey; The Manitou) serves up a lethal combination of skillfully written detective story and intense horror, as the citizens of contemporary Warsaw begin finding headless bodies all over town. Is the perpetrator a deranged serial killer or a legendary monster living in the city's sewers? Komisarz Stefan Rej is stumped. When the seventh victim, a radio reporter critical of the Senate Hotels chain, is found in the sewer under the construction site of the chain's newest project, Rej thinks he finally has a motive for the gory events. He meets his testy match in a vice-president of the Senate chain, Sarah Leonard, an American of Polish descent who has a rapport with the Polish workers. They say that the reporter was killed by a demon that lives in the sewersAa Warsaw legend since the 17th centuryAand they refuse to work until it is eradicated. Frantic when German replacement workers are butchered, Sarah asks her Chicago cop dad for help. He sends retired police inspector Clayton Marsh, who proposes a s?ance with a Warsaw medium and hears frightening revelations. Sarah's life is further complicated by an apparent connection between her boss (and ex-lover) and the Polish mafia. Using flashbacks, Masterton weaves the horrors of Nazi occupation (real-life SS General Erich von Bach Zelewski has a surprising role) and use of the sewers by the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising into a highly atmospheric tale. Fans of horror, mystery buffs and aficionados of WWII stories will all enjoy this dandy thriller, whose clever protagonists find enlightenment and a little romance through their pursuit of the monster. (Dec.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This thriller, first published in Europe in 1997, finds the veteran horror novelist equally at home in the crime genre. A particularly vicious serial killer appears to be terrorizing Warsaw, and police detective Stefan Rej reluctantly teams up with Sarah Leonard, an aggressive corporate executive, to find the culprit. It's not a particularly original premise--the odd couple sleuthing team has been done a thousand times before--but Masterton gives it freshness. His setting is unique (When was the last time you read a thriller set in Warsaw?), his killer is gruesomely fascinating, and his storytelling is visceral and graphic. There is, of course (Masterson's fans will expect this), a hint of the supernatural, just enough to give the proceedings a suitable eerie feel. A rousingly good thriller, effectively mixing horror and mystery elements, from a popular writer. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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