HOUSE INFERNAL

by Edward Lee

published by Leisure Books (October 2007)

ISBN: 978-0-8439-5806-5

review by Ty Schwamberger

05.09.2009

The ink in Edward Lee’s pen must have been coming out hell-blood red when he wrote House Infernal. Even if you are curious about what Hell looks like, you would have never imagined it being this bad.

The book is essentially about a catholic school girl named Venetia. While studying to become a nun, she commits herself to a work-volunteer program for extra college credits at an old priory house that was built for the church. Little does she know that the place was built long ago under command of the Devil himself by a Vatican-paid builder named Tessorio. While working at the priory house, she discovers a growing lust for the opposite sex, hears strange voices before falling asleep every night, and learns about a satanic cult still in existence today and a few well-kept secrets of why the house was truly built.

At the same time in Hell, an ex-prostitute and druggie named Ruth and an ex-priest by the name of Alexander are trying to keep something very bad from happening and if they succeed they will be rewarded by having their sentence in Hell reduced or voided altogether. As they travel through the now city-like Hell, they come face to face with the many strange life-forms that wander the streets in search of prey. Their main objective throughout the book is to get to a high-ranking Hell official by the name of Boniface and stop him from sending something awful to earth via a portal underneath the priory house.

Little does Venetia know that she is the key to what Boniface needs in order to complete his mission for Satan. By the end of the book a surprise is revealed to Venetia and she’ll have to keep her faith strong in order to survive.

This is the third book I have read by Edward Lee. The previous two, The Backwoods and Messenger, I didn’t enjoy as much (possibly because most of his subject matter deals with the Devil), but this book I enjoyed quite a lot. There are some fabulously horrific scenes in Hell. Even in my wildest dreams and writing, I don’t think I could have come up with something like this. It is a truly unique experience to see how spending an eternity in Hell must be like. Even though there isn’t much action in the book, the characters are all very well developed and the plot is tightly woven.

I would highly recommend this book to someone that is thinking about committing a sin. Because once you experience Edward Lee’s Hell in House Infernal, you’ll want to do everything you possibly can to keep yourself from visiting the ‘land down under’.