My Soul to Take-Tananarive Due

My Soul to Take
Tananarive Due
Washington Square (Pocket) Sep 6 2011, $13.00
ISBN: 9781439176146

In 2016 California, Clarion World Health Corporation public relations director John Wright persuades retired musical superstar Phoenix Smalls Harris (see Joplin’s Ghost) to let him in her house to talk. When he realizes she is alone he lectures her for allowing a stranger into her home. He explains his employer (Immortal) Fana Wolde wants the singer to heal the world through music rather than just the firm’s incredible drug Glow that comes from the blood of immortals. Whereas much of the world has legalized Glow’s use, the United States refuses claiming terrorist ties, but many insist the pharmaceutical industry thrives on the sick not the healthy.

A mother of a seven year old son, Phoenix agrees to perform as she still does a rare concert to raise money and awareness like she did for Haiti. She is willing because she knows people are suffering from the Praying Disease that Fana's fiancé, Michel deployed on an unsuspecting world. This Immortal believes humans must become extinct to fulfill the Book of Revelation’s Apocalypse. Only Fana and her Life Brothers can stop the Immortal she is destined to marry, but his kill rate far surpasses their heal rate.

The latest thought provoking African Immortals thriller (see Blood Colony and The Living Blood) is a powerful poignant tale as mortals with immortal allies battle for their existence with other immortals. The story line is globally loaded with action, but character driven by the key players as well as those caught in the crossfire. Readers will appreciate this tale with clever ties to Joplin’s Ghost as Tananarive Due will receive plenty of deserved accolades for her insightful exciting war of species cleansing in the name of God.

Harriet Klausner