Now Speaks the Devil (ePub)

Some men are so blind, only Evil can make them see.

Chip Adams may be nearing his forties, but the world looks the same as it did when he was a kid. He lives in a sheltered neighborhood in a San Francisco suburb in the house where he was born, a museum of childhood memories he shares with his adoring family. An amateur magician, he still has every toy he's ever owned. Why grow up?

But time is working against Chip and clinging to childhood comes with a price: His little boy is recovering from a serious illness. With his toy and magic shop failing, Chip has mortgaged his house to keep it afloat. His little church is also going under. His wife, Ruth, offers to work. But even that small compromise would signal the end of the values that Chip clings to. All you need is magic, he fervently believes. All you need is prayer to stay forever young.

Then, one night, comes an answer to his prayers: Two million dollars in cash appears in his garbage can.

A gift from God? Or something else? Something worse . . . .

Like a gift from the Devil, in the guise of Thornton, legendary underworld troubleshooter, enforcer and assassin of blazing malice, reptilian cunning and piercing eye for human frailty. He's a man who loves his job, a villain among villains.

As Thornton mounts a campaign of duplicity and ruthless terror against the Adams family, Chip is forced out of his silo into hiring a pair of rough n' worldly bodyguards. But when they bring more help than he's willing to accept, Chip forcibly resists, exposing both his family and community to even greater danger.

Because Thornton is out there. Thornton will stop at nothing.

In a spectacular final confrontation with Thornton, set against the backdrop of a huge amusement park, Chip realizes he must come to grip with the changes in his life and world if he's to have any hope of saving both.

An exhilarating blend of Alfred Hitchcock's impish wit with the steely gaze of Richard Stark and the strutting villainy of a Sergio Leone movie, Now Speaks the Devil is a comic noir suspense tale that will pull you to the edge of your seat. With the third in his series of original screenplays, Thomas Burchfield, the author of Dragon's Ark and The Uglies: A Crime Saga, has conjured another fast-paced wicked thriller.