The Judas Hit

Stoker Award–finalist Gagliani’s offbeat supernatural thriller boasts an audacious premise: instead of Judas Iscariot taking his own life, the prototypical traitor was reprieved and transformed into a near-immortal agent for the Vatican Secret Service. In the present, under the alias Simon Pound, Judas confronts his greatest challenge after construction on a Queens, New York, mall unearths a statuette depicting a satanic version of the crucifixion, with an evil smile carved on Christ’s face. Simon learns that statuette has ended up in the hands of the New Golden Dawn, which is after four more figures so they can liberate the demon Astaroth, who has been confined in Rome for centuries. Simon’s efforts to stop the apocalyptic plan are hampered by someone who knows his closely guarded secret—that without a special band around his wrist, he can be killed. Gagliani (Wolf’s Trap) doesn’t stint on the gore (“She stared at his face, watching the vitreous and bloody matter leak onto his cheek from the new entry holes”). Action fans looking for an out-there page-turner are in luck. [em](BookLife) [/em]