The year was 1917. Like many other young men of his generation Sean Mulcahy had answered Uncle Sam's call and joined the army. Shipped off tot he Western Front he fought along side his countrymen until one day he vanished. Believing him to have been killed in action his friends and family went on with their lives.

Thirty years later Vince, Sean's oldest friend, has lost everything. His wife has left him; kicked out of the NYPD he has nothing more to look forward to than dulling the pain with alcohol. That is until he hears a knock at the door and finds Sean standing there, bedraggled, bleeding, delirious and looking exactly the same as the day he vanished.

Vince then sets out to discover the truth about Sean's disappearance and return but he is not the only one. Something evil is showing considerable interest in the truth about Sean. Mutilated bodies start to turn up and it becomes evident that there is more to Sean than meets the eye. But is Sean under threat or is actually a threat to the world himself? Only Vince and his estranged wife, Maggie, can discover the truth.

The Lucifer Messiah is Frank Cavallo's first novel and is set in the seamy New York underworld among gangsters, prostitutes and demons! Vince is your typical ex cop – alcoholic, failed marriage, living in a pigsty. When his friend returns, having been presumed killed during the war, it initially seems like things are finally going to take a turn for the better but Vince starts to suspect that the Sean that has come back may not be quite the same man as he knew thirty years earlier.

This is quite an unusual storyline and many authors would find it difficult to do it justice. Frank Cavallo, despite being a first-time author, manages to do so with great style and originality. Sometimes, when you read an author's first novel the writing style can feel a little naïve. This is not the case with Cavallo – he has written a compelling story that keeps you guessing until the very end.

This book promises even greater things to come from Frank Cavallo and I certainly look forward to reading more.

Synopsis
Sean Mulcahy answered Uncle Sam's call. In the autumn of 1917, he left his home, his friends, and the girl he loved. On the killing fields of the Western Front, he vanished without a trace.

Thirty years later his best friend Vince Sicario is a broken man. Split from his wife, run off the NYPD, his world swirls in the bottom of a bottle. Until Sean comes clawing at his door. Bleeding. Delirious. And looking not a single day older.

Vince turns to the only person he trusts, his wife Maggie - the woman Sean left behind three decades earlier. Together they hit the streets of Hell's Kitchen, seeking answers to Sean's disappearance ... and mysterious return.

But others are on the same trail, and something terrible is lurking in the dark alleys and dirty corners of the West Side. Wise guys are disappearing. Mutilated corpses are turning up. The cops are baffled and gangsters are running scared. Rumors abound of strange gatherings in the shadows, of ancient horrors reborn, of blood feasts and pagan rites rekindled. Some say the savior of the damned has come.

Sean may be in terrible danger. Or the greatest danger of all.

The Lucifer Messiah.