Bernice Krueger, reporter for the Ashton Chronicle, finds herself in jail after being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She came to Ashton to investigate the supposed suicide of her sister. Now, she and her boss, Marshall Hogan, start investigating some strange occurrences in town.
Hank Busche is a small town pastor who is trying to keep his argumentative congregation from falling apart. Little does he know, there are dark forces in town that are set on seeing him fail. As demons characters carry out their assignments, Marshall and Hank become more determined to discover the truth. But can two men fight a host of demons they cannot see? And why is the host of heaven standing around and watching? Aren’t they going to do anything to stop this evil plot from taking over the town?
Wow. This book has changed the way I think of angels and demons. There are many references in the Bible that lead me to believe there is a spiritual war going on around us that we can’t see. But never have I read anything to give me such a clear picture of how that might look. In Daniel 10, Daniel has a vision of an angel coming to speak to him. The angel says in verses 12-14, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”
This has always amazed me. That God told this angel to come and talk to Daniel, but the angel got held up fighting some demon over in Persia. In the Bible, angels are sometimes referred to as princes. I believe this angel was talking about how he was fighting with the prince of the Persian kingdom, who was a fallen angel, or demon, since he was resisting one of the host of heaven. It’s this idea that Peretti builds his story around. The idea that there are angels and demons waging war around us in a dimension that we cannot see. They can see us, but we can’t see them. And in Peretti’s story, the demons want to rule Ashton and the angels are there to make sure God’s plan prevails.
This Present Darkness is an awesome story. Marshall, Bernice, and Hank slowly stumble onto the truth and have to work together to save Ashton. I love how Peretti showed the angels as mighty warriors interacting with one another. I also loved how Peretti showed the power of prayer. I kept rooting for the characters to pray, already! This book was thrilling, scary, amazing, and brilliant. I can’t say enough wonderful things about it. Everyone should read this book at least once in their life, if not over and over again.
Age Range: 16 and up
Genre: Suspense
Part of a Series: no
Pages: 376
Publisher: Crossway Books
Released: Original edition, 1986; revised editon, 2003
hey, thank you for the review. I like Frank Peretti. I just wanted to make a little comment about what you said concerning the prince of persia being a demon or fallen angel. First, the Bible makes it very clear that demons ARE fallen angels, the princes of darkness. they do not take Physical form, but angels appear to men in dreams, and demons possess the minds (but not souls) of men. therefore, it is likely that the angel and Michael, the Arch angel, fought a demon who had gone into the king of persia. This may have been Satan’s anti Christ at the time. the Bible says even the prince of darkness knows not the hour of HIS (Christ’s) coming.