Short-listed in the Pirate's Alley William Faulkner-William Wisdom ContestSupported by Vermont Studio Center Residency and GrantSupported by Wildacres Arts & Humanities Center ResidencyPriya Conlin-Kumar, a South-Asian American FBI agent, was conceived when her American mother was gang-raped in India shortly after marrying a Hindu man. Despite the fact that Priya's name means "beloved," the knowledge that she was created by an act of violence influences her decision to become a sworn officer.After nearly fifteen years in law enforcement, she is assigned to the FBI's Wheeling, WV location. The afternoon of her arrival, she looks out the hotel window and has a vision from the Hindu epic The Ramayana. Shaking off the fugue as mere stress, she is left with the nagging feeling that it was actually something more. She is quick to see that the murders, although similar, may not be the work of the same person. Cole Bennett, a thirty-something blue-collar worker, is a serial rapist who kills his victims in order to avoid capture. Quinn Lawrence, a furniture dealer, is a classic serial murderer. He is the ten-headed demon king Ravana, the same monster who terrorized women in The Ramayana. The body that proves the two-killer theory is soon found beside an offering tray filled with rupees and Indian fruits. Priya immediately recognizes that the scene has been staged for her personally, and that the Ohio River stand in for the sacred Ganges. Priya confides in Ohio County Sheriff Randal Pierson, a man who becomes her lover. The visions manifest themselves in physical ways--a drop of blood, a feather, a flame-red asoka flower from the demon king's garland. Priya also has visions of Shiva, the god who destroys the corrupt world then makes it anew with his great Tandava dance. In Hindu thought, male and female energy must combine for either to be effective. Without the creative female power of shakti, Shiva's Tandava dance could never begin. As Randal and Priya's lovemaking grows fierce, the righteous anger Hindu warriors must feel if they are to be victorious explodes. Kali enters Priya before the final battle on the mountainside. From the PublisherReaders who found Yann Martel's mixof fantasy, spirituality and darkness so compelling in Life of Pi can enjoy thesame blend in Laine Cunningham's latest novel He Drinks Poison. The storyfollows a South Asian-American FBI agent as she tracks a prolific serialkiller. While she deals with her past, the Hindu epic The Ramayana comes tolife in the Allegheny Mountains. Only byaccessing the power of the dark goddess Kali can she bring down the killer who embodiesthe demon king Ravana.