Return

by Mark Mustian

Reporter Michael Mason's search for glimpses of God has uncovered dozens of fraudulent claims, including twenty-six false messiahs. The black Brazilian woman follows the messianic template: the hype, the healings, the adulation. Her control and dominance over the mammoth crowd at a Sao Paulo service surprises Mason. Is it the usual self-delusion? Hypnotism on a mass scale? Or perhaps, this time, the real thing: the Return?A disciple's odd death hints at something more sinister. Mason finds evidence of deception, leading him to question whether his glimpse is of the Other instead. Pursued by the government, the military, and the mysterious black-hooded ajudantes, he must escape with his sanity, his life, and -- most important -- the answer.

303 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2000

About the author

Mark Mustian is the author of the novel The Gendarme, which was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Award for Writing, a finalist for the Dayton International Literary Peace Prize, and won the Florida Gold Book Award for General Fiction. It has now been published in ten languages. His new novel, Boy With Wings, won the Grand Prize for Fiction from Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the Bronze Prize for Historical Fiction from Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), among a number of other honors. He is the founder of the Word of South Festival of Literature and Music in Tallahassee, Florida, and divides his time between Michigan and Florida with his wife and dog.