Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts: A Paranormal Suspense Novel

Three girls. A devilish game. A lifetime of consequences. Roxanne, Alice, and Del were schoolgirls and best friends together at Our Lady of the Hills School. They shared the silly secrets of girlhood, but also shared something less innocent: the destruction of the life and reputation of a handsome priest, Father Romero.They all but forget Romero until they grow to adulthood, leading their own complicated, often troubled, lives. Then a seductive stranger, Varick, enters their midst. Varick is too good to be true, and knows each of them a little too well. When he begins to manipulate their minds as well as their actions, the women’s lives spin out of control. They have no idea that the vengeful architect of their destruction has made a pact with the devil himself.Inspired by Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye, and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts invites you into the darkest corners of the human soul.

From Publishers Weekly

After summoning a lover through a ritual part witchcraft, part Santeria, at the start of Benedict's spellbinding second novel (after Isabella Moon), three 13-year-old Lolitas—Roxanne, Del and Alice—believe that their new teacher at Cincinnati's Our Lady of the Hills school, is the angel sent to deflower them. Roxanne successfully schemes to seduce Cuban-born Father Romero, who suffers terrible guilt as a result. When Alice and Del each falsely accuse Romero of acting inappropriately toward them, Romero is defrocked and loses his job. Seventeen years later, Romero returns to town with Varick, a demon disguised as a man, to punish the now adult schoolgirls. All become entangled in an unholy web of destruction that threatens innocent lives. While the underage sex may make some readers uncomfortable, this sad, erotically charged update of a classic horror theme offers a cautionary moral: pacts with the devil seldom result in happiness. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Roxanne, Del, and Alice have been friends since childhood, with Roxanne taking the dominant role. Roxanne is a force to be reckoned with—whatever she wants, Del and Alice will go along with, however reluctantly, from the usual teenage misbehaviors to witchcraft ceremonies in the park. When the girls are 13, she convinces them to back up a ruinous story about one of the priests at their Catholic school. Defrocked and furious, the priest disappears, and they keep it a secret between themselves. Years later each meets a mysterious man named Varick, and within moments of their meeting, Roxanne’s, Del’s, and Alice’s lives begin to unravel. None of them know what he wants from them but they can’t help giving it to him. Why is Varick here, and most importantly—who is he? Don’t let the title fool you: though it sounds like a Cary Grant film, Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts is extremely scary. Benedict has written a very suspenseful, tense, and sinister second novel. --Hilary Hatton

About the Author

Laura Benedict is the author of Isabella Moon. Her short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and a number of anthologies. For the past decade she has worded as a freelance book reviewer for the Grand Rapids Press in Michigan and other newspapers. She lives in Southern Illinois with her husband, Pinckney Benedict, and their two children.www.laurabenedict.com

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