In this chilling, psychological thriller, Brian Evenson delivers with cold precision the tale of a provost from the Corporation of the Blood of the Lamb and his affection - an unholy predilection - for children. The provost's sickness emerges deliberately, and the reader is drawn into the disturbing inner workings of a violent pedophile.

The provost's perverse actions speak for themselves. In this cautionary tale, Evenson exposes the rigid and insular religious community that protects one of its own - an upstanding cleric, a man of God - at the expense of the victims; children from the provost's congregation. In an effort to keep scandal at arm's length, the Church unknowingly, then blindly, gives the provost carte blanche to continue his sordid relations with children.