Transplanted Evil : A supernatural suspense novel

by Len Handeland

Meet Elizabeth Bennington. A shy young girl raised in privilege with a distant and uncaring father and a doting and overly protective mother outside of Boston in the neighboring town of Charlestown. Yet, despite coming from wealth, Elizabeth was born with a congenital heart condition, leading to bullying at school, hopelessness, and a failed suicide attempt rescued by her parents. She is sent to Bourneville psychiatric hospital, where she undergoes transformative therapy sessions, dramatically improving her outlook on life. She is released after a year. But Elizabeth has a she can see into the future and is haunted by recurring nightmares foreshadowing unspeakable acts of murder involving a mysterious young man with hair the color of a raven splattered with blood. Marty Bowles attends school with Elizabeth and is madly in love with her, almost obsessed with her. Marty’s propensity for violence at school, his depraved lust for killing stray animals, and his involvement with the black arts, including demonic worship, conjuring a demon named Kashgar, and possession, directly threaten her. Could Marty be the mysterious young man in her nightmares who will stop at nothing to gain her love and unite them with his sinister plan?

376 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 3, 2023

About the author

Len Handeland is a self-published writer who has won several awards for his novels. He writes books in the genres of vampire, paranormal, supernatural, and murder crime drama. Len has been passionate about writing since his middle school days. He has taken numerous creative writing classes and attended The San Francisco International Writer’s Conference in 2017, which encouraged him to write his first book, “The Darkest Gift.” The book was inspired by his love for vampires and the works of renowned author Anne Rice. Len received positive feedback from readers and professional book reviewers, earning him a finalist spot in the American Book Fest contest in the fall of 2021. In the spring of 2022, Len’s novel “The Darkest Gift” won first place in the Bookfest 2022 Fiction/Horror category awards. The book and author interview were featured in the fall literature issue of “DeMode” magazine, and it was named one of the “10 must-read books of 2021.”
Len’s second novel, “Requiem for Miriam,” won first place in the Literary Titan awards for fiction/horror. Len’s third book, “Tales from the Chair,” is his only nonfiction book, drawing from his 27 years of experience in the hair industry. It won the Firebird award in the beauty category. His fourth novel, “Transplanted Evil,” has also received positive feedback from readers. Len’s first novel, “The Darkest Gift,” is being considered for adaptation as a mini-series or major motion picture by several live-streaming networks, including HBO, Paramount Plus, the CW network, Sony, Lionsgate Entertainment, and Warner Brothers. Len has just completed writing his fifth book, “The Darkest Passages,” which is the sequel to “The Darkest Gift,” and began writing his sixth book, “The Haunting of Wellsley Manor,” which the author hopes to release in the fall of 2024.

Reviews

[Sarah Nelson-White · Rating 5 out of 5]

From start to finish I couldn’t put this book down. To start off you learn about Elizabeth and her health condition. The struggles she has as a teen, and then later on in life. You get a brief glimpse of Marty throughout Elizabeth’s scenes. Leading into the second half you get to learn more about Marty and his development into a serial killer. It’s definitely a different take on a possession, and a very interesting read with a few twists & turns along the way! I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Josette Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very different type of possession novel. The first half of the book shows us all about Elizabeth’s life. We learn about her health issues, her instances with bullies and her depression. The reader is also allowed a glimpse of Marty and how he is involved with Elizabeth as a parallel within her timeline. The second half of the book is about Marty. Marty, Marty, Marty. He can only be described as a psychopath in the making. From a small child until his teens he clearly had issues. Even his parents tried to protect society from Marty. He had other plans. This whole part of the book was the description of how many people suffered at his hands. He delved into witchcraft bringing about a demon to help him. The last part of the book was wow! So much happened in a short period of time coming to the stunning conclusion. I did not see that coming! This book was a bit long but in order for the reader to get the final chapters, the reader could use this information as helpful.

[Lyndsey Gollogly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh this is a difficult one for me. I love the premise of the book it was really interesting and hard in some places I wanted to love it but found that Elizabeth’s side of things felt stilted and kinda forced where as Marty’s read better I got a little frustrated half way through wondering where it was going there was a lot things that didn’t need to be there.
BUT like I said the premise was really interesting and different.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.