END TIMES

by Jerry Jay Carroll

The false messiah Satan created for the End Times steps from the nearly-completed portrait. Without memory or self-knowledge, he wanders outside to a country road and walks for hours not caring where. SEALS veteran Alex Randall, now a cop, assumes from his blankness that he has amnesia. Against regulations, he drops him off at a high-end clinic where patients and staff succumb to the stranger’s beauty and effortless charm.

Genres: Fiction

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2019

About the author

Jerry Jay Carroll is a former journalist nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize and the author of six novels, among them Top Dog, a NYT bestseller. Just out is End Times, an eschatological thriller about Good vs. Evil. Before that was another genre-bending roller-coaster ride called The Horror Writer about a wildly popular author Thom Hearn who who writes low-brow crap for the masses that get made into lucrative summer tent-pole splatter movies . Hearn is rich but the disdain of the literary world made him bitter. Then comes the invitation he gets with Wall Street whiz Carrie Alexander to a Davos-like conference of the high and mighty run by a charismatic man who can do anything better than anyone else. Hearn is the first to notice the weirdness but Carrie's not far behind. Then his fictional characters start showing up and that’s only the beginning. Who is running the show here, the charismatic director of the conference or some other manipulator? And why must everyone in the world die? Carroll was a feature writer and columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle before moving with wife and son to Montana and, later, Oregon.

Reviews

[Jennifer Rust · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing

You would think this would be about the end times ... but it’s not the typical ‘left behind’ schlock. Instead, it combines a dashing, gorgeous character suffering from amnesia, and the cop and talent scout who find him. Both band together to protect this charming man who has a talent for, well, everything. After a series of frankly incredible careers (movie star, baseball pitching great) he ends up running for President, and the cop and talent scout learn his true nature along the way. Only 4 stars because halfway thru you figure out the end ... but it is a helluva ride.