Title: And By God’s Hand You Shall Die

Author: David Sodergren

Release date: June 30, 2023

I had the extreme pleasure and honor of beta reading this novel, but I told David I would be posting a review of this as well, and he was a-ok with that.

As with all of David’s works, you know you’re in for a treat. Expect salaciousness, gore aplenty and characters you’ll root for and gasp if they don’t make it. If you follow his Twitter account and see the love for specific movies, you’ll know going in where his inspiration lies with each novel and this one’s no different.

Oddly enough, I’d just finished reading Stephanie Parent’s fantastic ‘The Briars,’ which created the rare situation where I’d read two books set in brothels back to back.

What I liked: The novel follows Candy, a young woman with big dreams who finds it tough making her way in the world. She begins working at a brothel, which just so happens to be the site of a former church, that was brought to the ground by a fire.

It’s with that in mind that we get a novel that offers us a historical look at a cross section in time, when, in the 70’s, people in power would be visiting these places daily, only to turn around and fight to ban them in public. This was a time just before New York worked to clean up its image and with that a few years away, a small group of protestors had already begun to scream and rant that the place was filled with whores and devil worshippers.

As the novel progresses, we get to see Father Patrick’s return, how his rantings come true and how it comes to relate to each of the women working there. This leads to some truly gruesome moments, some fantastically done religious carnage and above all else, we get to see how the death of one is a tragedy.

What I didn’t like: In the grand scheme of things it’s minor, but I HATED the woman running the place. She didn’t come off as caring about the women in the least, when I really thought she would’ve been considering they bring the men back, and without the men, there’s no cash flow.

Why you should buy this: If you’re already a fan of Sodergren’s – this is a no-brainer. A thought-provoking novel that is tension-filled and phenomenally paced, its a hard read to put down.

If you’ve never read any of his work, this is a solid place to dive in. This would be more on the extreme side of his work, akin to ‘The Perfect Victim’ and ‘Satan’s Burnouts Must Die!,’ David weaves another tale that’ll have you wrapped around his talented hand and once done, you’ll be grabbing the rest of his books!

A total blast, this one was great.

5/5