Whipping Boy

"Give me your sorrows. Give me your needings...I will take them from you..."In a muddy field in Faulkner, Illinois, a crowd has come to see the smooth-cheeked boy in a makeshift canvas tent -- the boy whose stern father claims he can work a peculiar kind of miracle."And you will be mine."Our worst secrets, our darkest pain, our weakness and shame -- the hollow part of us -- these he takes upon himself, leaving behind a strange white light of peace and contentment.What grows in that eerie human light? While word of his power spreads and hundreds are "reborn," two people remain impervious to Paul's power. A priest and a young woman reporter come face-to-face with a nightmare. Relieved of guilt, steeped in self-acceptance, Paul's followers are possessed by a strange new evil no one can control: a living, breathing, palpitating evil freed to live without restraints -- and marching toward blood-soaked dominion.