Bad Angels by Peter McAra

Looking 'round for inspiration, I stumbled across a sad case at Cambewarra, where a nasty cult leader (Little Pebble) had been jailed for sex with the under-age girls living in the cult’s secure compound at the foot of the mountain, near Nowra. He’s still in jail, thanks to one of the girls turning whistleblower. His line was that The Lord had asked him to father lots of children to build the population of his cult (the Order of St Charbel), so he got on with it.

Bad Angels, totally fiction but based on the above and set locally, opens with the cult leader’s murder. How could any human penetrate the compound, surrounded 24/7 by electronic security and armed guards? (as it is in reality). As the police investigate, they half-jokingly suggest ‘The Angel Solution,’ where angels, undetected by radar or guards, might have flown in and done the deed.

As the book unfolds, we meet a line-up of suspects, ranging from disaffected cult members to the next-door neighbours who’ve become pretty fed up with the cult’s horrible treatment of its women believers.

Author: Peter McAra

Born a miner’s son in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Peter combined university study with jobs ranging from mining to truck driving. His academic career led him to found an international management consultancy. After a sea change to the New South Wales South Coast, he accepted a lectureship at the University of Wollongong. Planning to get serious about writing (his earlier dabblings had produced academic texts, plays, magazine columns, etc., etc.), Peter quit lecturing to write full-time. His first published novel, The Vintner’s Letters (Mira, 2007), soon hit the best-seller lists and is now in its third edition

Bad Angels is available on Amazon as an ebook and paperback novel.

Posted on August 02, 2013