The Shaft: A Supernatural Thriller (The Global Calling Series Book 1)

“From the very first scene, I knew this book would be intense. The church murders added a layer of mystery I wasn’t expecting. I appreciated how faith played such a central role without slowing down the action. This was an excellent read.”

“I was absolutely thrilled with this book! I always enjoy a novel that contains murders, church leaders and which is full of suspense, and this one in particular fulfilled all the expectations I had when I saw the cover and I chose it. The story takes place in The United States during the year 2017 and it’s based on murders related to a sweeping religious movement. All the characters are really great, with strong personalities and a fantastic development throughout the story. They managed to keep me on the edge of my seat until the last page! Once again, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery and excitement. It was a fantastic piece of work!”

“Pennsylvania author Scott Delaney earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from Baylor University and his MBA form the University of Texas, Austin, and has served the pharmaceutical industry as President and CEO of Unichem Pharmaceuticals USA. Scott is also a musician (vocalist and pianist) and has served as a Bible Study leader and mentor. He makes his literary debut with the Global Calling Series, of which THE SHAFT is the initial volume. Delaney’s book is vested in spiritual values and elects to address supernatural aspects of the thriller genre with the inclusion of angels and demons – a refreshing vantage for revisiting the reality of terrorist actions and racist/religious hate crimes, such as church mass shootings. In is Prologue he presents the formation for The Call, responding to both Texas and Bay Area church murders, and then opens the story with a setting in 2017: “Nicolai Virhenko – or Niki, as his associates knew him – was perched on the weather-worn roof of an abandoned 1940s textile mill immediately adjacent to the Valley Baptist Temple of Portland, Oregon…The target on that fateful day was Martin McBride, who’d been a senior pastor at Valley Baptist Temple for more than a quarter of a century… As Martin took his last step in the earth, he was unable to hear the almost inaudible click and whoosh of air immediately before the bullet from Niki’s gun hit its mark.’ That degree of accurate terror pervades this supernatural thriller. The plot proceeds as follows: ‘It is December 2017 and a sweeping religious movement is gaining traction in the United States. As spiritual leaders diligently work to spread the Word of God to the people, liberal factions in the world of pharmaceutical and scientific development create a secret society with a dark mission: to thwart the group’s conservative impact on what society considers to be morally acceptable. As a string of church-related murders plague the nation, the FBI and local authorities race to locate the assassin responsible. When the members of the secret society realize that the murders are not stopping or slowing the threat, they resort to kidnapping. One of their abductees is Andrew Morrison, a key leader of “The Call” ministry. After he manages to escape from his captors in Texas, he must identify and locate his family as well as the killer of many of his friends that were fellow leaders in this ministry. But as angelic hosts enter the scene to protect and intervene, now only time will tell who will win this compelling battle of good versus evil as a church movement attempts to make a meaningful impact on the world. ‘ Vivid and involving, Scott Delaney proves to be an author adept at both storytelling and infusing Christian reactions to violence and evil. Grady Harp, March 22”

“This book has been quite a challenge for me because I have never read something related to these themes as the Occult and demonism are. It has really surprised me how fast I got hooked by this novel and entertained. The main core of this tale is Christianity but the modern type of Christianity where followers stand for their beliefs no matter what. Mingled with this theme, the evil appears to let you know that everything we do there is something good and something bad underlying that. In general, the narrative is smooth, it touches topics in a subtle way and the best part is that it leaves a good message at the end. One person found this helpful”

“In full disclosure, the author is a friend of mine so I certainly wanted to read his first novel but I also knew that he would allow me to be a bit critical if needed. I must say that I don't need to be critical at all, except that now I wish he would quit his day job and write a sequel. Many of the events in the book take place within a stone's throw of where I live and while some names have been changed just a bit, I know the places he is writing about. For me, the story comes alive as I connect with the main character and his drive to honor God and provide for and protect his family at the same time. I enjoyed the non-stop action and the timestamps on every chapter kept my ADHD in check as I was able to keep everything somewhat cataloged. I fully appreciate the humanity of the characters without the need to over-spiritualize every step they take. I do believe that there are many forces, of which we have limited knowledge, protecting and guiding us on a daily if not hourly basis and it was refreshing to see that demonstrated in a very practical way. Being able to pierce the veil so to speak was remindful that we don't know everything that we think we do sometimes and thus the need for faith to be a strong foundation in our life. I read through the novel quickly as I was simply captivated and wanted to see what happened next. At the end I found myself wishing for another couple hundred pages to know how their story continued. I'm hoping Scott has the sequel in the works already. I will be asking him that very question. Buy the book, read it, you will be glad you did.”