Reviews for The Deadly Maze: A Novel

The average rating for The Deadly Maze: A Novel based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-11-10 00:00:00 Scott Parker This book is a relic of the Satanic Panic from the 1980s-1990s. As a fictional book without that context it’s not that great of a read. The protagonist doesn’t do a whole lot of investigating herself. She relies on her boyfriend and his friend to find things with a computer. Any other facts are basic releases from the police. She doesn’t go to crime scenes, read autopsy reports, interview detectives. Just learns from a fax her editor gave her and makes a leaping conclusion that everything is Satanists. Which, with context, does help the baseless conclusions make more sense. The author is preaching to the reader and as such she cannot lay out the clues and have the reader read between the lines and allow them to make their own conclusions as the story unfolds. She tells the reader what everything is, and that everything is Satan, and only with the power of Jesus they can save the day. Once I realized what it was I switched to reading this book as an artifact of the Satanic Panic. It had all the calling cards on f a moral panic story - drugs, corrupt corporations, and most importantly a thinly veiled reference to Dungeons&Dragons. Through the protagonist’s brother the author lays out the “treacherous” path the game (called Demon Crypt in the book) is a gateway into drugs, alcohol, turning away from God, and ultimately giving into Satan. Also, semi-spoiler, that ending was something else. The protagonist is captured by the Satanists and the church gets together to save her. To save her? They have prayer meetings, planning meetings over coffee and cookies and laughter, and have the housewives frantically sew together (non-evil) Halloween costumes. Oh, and they toss in a woman pretending to be an angel and a boom box and Christian music. That is how they save the day. It was more unbelievable than any supernatural horror book I have ever read.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-01-26 00:00:00 Gloria Seborg Wish I had known before reading, that it was an attempt at "Christian Fiction". Its an older book before the popularity of that genre. Story was good, but it plodded along too much for my taste. And a trance channeler named Cynthia Crawford! Really! LOL