Play the Devil

by Henry G. Sheppard

Wilfred Lever, son of ambitious missionaries, is wrenched from his life in an Indian village by a prophecy: he shall be Elijah in his own country. Sent to Adelaide to stay with a perverted aunt, he is well into adolescence when his family joins him there. In the first manifestation of a burgeoning power complex, he forces himself upon his half-sister, now a deeply desirable young woman. The prophecy seals Wilfred's moral doom as the institutional nature of his life protects him from retribution. A character with no moral compass, he gets away with corruption and hypocrisy. But when Wilfred rapes his niece, it seems his number is up. The board forces Wilfred's resignation, but at his lowest point, it seems the prophecy really is true. The church is priming him for politics: all his travails have led him to this moment, where at last he is on the brink of true power.

Genres: Religion, Crime, Murder Mystery

326 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2013

About the author

Henry Sheppard was born in Melbourne in 1954, the second of eight children, to a schoolteacher of Irish descent and a Polish refugee, a former slave labourer in Nazi Germany. His father became an alcoholic and abandoned the family when Henry was nine. His mother brought the children up on her own.

After completing high school in rural Victoria, Henry itinerated around Australia, working in a wide range of jobs, before settling in Adelaide, South Australia.

Today he lives with his wife Rainee, and divides his time between writing and trips to hospital.