In a throwback to beforetimes, Marc Rochat goes about his nightly duties of calling out the time when the bells of Lausanne Cathedral ring. C’est le guet. Il sonne l’heure! He repeats the words to the four directions every hour – they are the same words of comfort that have been spoken for centuries to tell the citizens of Lausanne, Switzerland that all is well and that Marc is watching for any approaching evil. Marc himself is a special young man – he talks to the bells and to the ancient statues; his appearance is special as well because he has a deformed leg due to an accident at birth. He waits for the day when his mother’s prediction will come true: Marc, you will one day save a lost angel at the Cathedral.

Katherine Taylor is a beautiful young American girl who, thanks to her carnal talents, was recruited to come to work in Lausanne. Thanks to her high prices and her extremely generous clients, many of them heads of state and powerful men of business, she lives in an expensive garden penthouse with a view of Lac Leman, dresses in only the finest of clothes, drinks only the best wines and champagnes, and commands attention wherever she goes.

Jay Harper is a man with no past – at least he can’t remember a past. He wakes up in Lausanne with a hangover and only knows that his business card describes him as a security expert for the International Olympic Committee. Whatever he knows, he believes he’s learned from sleepless nights of watching The History Channel. Try as he might, he can’t remember even his London telephone number or the address of his flat there.

But the time has come for all three of these unlikely comrades to form a small army to fight the cosmic evil that is about to be unleashed on not only the city of Lausanne but on our entire world as well. Can these three defend the Cathedral around which the fight will ensue? Will all three come out on the other side of the battle?

In a satisfyingly long book (over 700 pages) Jon Steele takes us on a wild, thrilling adventure of cosmic proportions. Each of our three main characters has special powers that will affect the battle between good and evil. I simply could not put this book down. It went everywhere with me, even in the car on short trips.  The story is fast-paced and the characters are finely drawn and complex. Twists and turns leave the reader wanting more. The conclusion to this first book in The Angelus Trilogy was satisfying to me and I look forward to the next book in the series.

CAUTION: Not for the faint-of-heart!!