Ashton is just a typical small town. But when a skeptical reporter and a pastor begin to compare notes, they suddenly find themselves fighting a hideous plot to subjugate the townspeople--and eventually the entire human race. A riveting thriller, "This Present Darkness" offers a fascinating glimpse into the unseen world of spiritual warfare.

Thorne Blackburn claimed to have magickal powers, to be able to tap into ancient wisdom. Others claimed he was a fake, cheating his many followers out of their money and destroying their free well. The truth may never be known ... one dark, climactic night thirty years ago, Blackburn's most powerful ritual went horribly awry, leaving his flock shattered and one woman dead. Blackburn himself vanished. Now the scattered remains of Blackburn's followers...

Celeste and her twin brother, Noble, are as close as can be -- until a tragic accident takes Noble's life. It's a loss that pushes their mother, a woman obsessed with New Age superstitions, over the edge.... Desperate to keep her son "alive," Celeste's mother forces her to cut her hair, wear boys' clothes, and take on Noble's identity. Celeste has virtually disappeared -- until a handsome boy moves in next door, and Celeste will risk her mother's...

With the help of Spencer Mitchell, Marissa Tomsen searches for her brother who disappeared after joining a secretive New Age group.

"Sabine is the most mercurial woman Peter Thorpe has ever known. Such is his desire for her that he overturns his whole life--his disillusioned merchant-banker's life--and leaves everything behind, not caring that his lover is of no fixed address, nor that his search for her will take him to the beating heart of New Ageism in northern California. Each of his fellow seekers is in hot pursuit of that elusive something (happiness?), and in their eccentric...