Title: A Circle of Souls
Author: Preetham Grandhi
Publisher: Sweetwater Books (an imprint of CFI)
Genre: Fiction
Year Published: 2009
Number of Pages: 339
Binding: Paperback
ISBN10: n/a
ISBN13: 978-1-59955-235-4
Price: $15.99

Reviewed by Jeffrey Needle

Having read every word of this novel, over a period of about a week, I
picked up the phone and called my friend at Cedar Fort. I didn’t know
anything about Sweetwater Books; I’d never heard of the author; there
wasn’t an ounce of Mormonism in this book. Why did CFI decide to
publish it? Turns out Sweetwater Books is an imprint of Cedar Fort,
designed to publish works for the larger reading public. No, not the
larger *Christian* reading public per se, but the larger reading public,
period.

As such, there is not only no Mormonism in this book. Neither is there
any standard expression of religion at all. And there are lots of
“damn”s and not a single “darn” I could find. And the protagonists
agree to meet for a cold beer. You get the idea.

Before I give you my opinion of the book, let me describe its contents.
If your children are reading over your shoulder, kindly ask them to go
play in the yard for a while.

Young Janet Troy is a happy little girl, living in a suburban
Connecticut town. When she doesn’t return home from school one day, her
mother becomes concerned and begins a search for her daughter. The
concern is well founded — Janet has been murdered in a vicious and
highly ritualized manner. After death, her body is dismembered and the
parts disbursed in a nearby field. Local police are stymied — this is
more than they’re equipped to deal with. They summon the help of FBI
agent Leia Bines, a known authority at solving crimes involving children.

When Bines arrives on the scene, she recognizes she needs to understand
the terrain better and requests a helicopter and pilot to take her up
for aerial photographs. It is only then that she realizes that the
various body parts have been laid out in a larger pattern resembling a
human body. This elevates the case in her mind — not just a crazed
killer here, but one who is involved in some sick ritual.

A search of local history files yields the fact that a similar murder
occurred decades earlier in this same area. It was never solved.

There’s another story going on at the same time. Dr. Peter Gram is a
child psychiatrist — overworked, overstressed, etc. When a young child
named Naya Hastings is admitted to the hospital, Peter takes a special
interest in the little girl. She’s been having nightmares, and the
previous night she tried to leap from her bedroom window. Fearing for
her safety, her foster parents admit her to the hospital.

The story lines come together when Naya begins communicating with Janet
in her sleep. Naya, talented in drawing, is able to sketch details of
the murder that only the killer, and the victim, would know. Peter is
determined to team with Leia to solve the many mysteries confronting
them. Who killed Janet? Is he the same person who killed that other
girl years ago? How is Naya communicating and knowing so much about the
murder?

Other characters enter into the story, including a fellow doctor who is
caught up in things beyond his ability to control, somewhat incompetent
local law enforcement officers, it goes on and on.

As the book progresses, the reader is brought into a dark place where
none of us really wants to be. Scenes inside the children’s psychiatric
hospital reveal some deep-seated truths about our health care system
that can shock the senses. So much evil seeming to triumph over the
good. Can it ever be redeemed, can it ever be brought back to a place
where we can comfortably live?

Grandhi explores some interesting theological ideas. It isn’t clear
whether he’s aware of the dangerous ground on which he treads. One
chapter explores the mind of the killer, reflecting on a childhood
fraught with problems and superstitious nonsense. He dismembers animals
to please the deity. And in the process, he wonders if the whole notion
of killing and presenting the victim to God isn’t an effort to fool God
into thinking that the sinner himself has been killed, and this
expiating his sins. It sends shivers up the spine of any believer in
the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.

“A Circle of Souls” is about as grisly a book as I’ve ever read from any
LDS publisher. It is brutal and unforgiving in its depictions of
murder, greed and the depravity of the human soul. It stops short of
being quite as bad as, say, Stephen King, but it comes perilously close
to going over the edge.

This is Grandhi’s first novel, and it’s a real gem. It’s absolutely
pitch-perfect in every way: scary when it should be scary, comforting
when it should be comforting. My innards cringed when they should have
cringed; I was able to breathe when I was supposed to breathe.

The identity of the killer came as a complete surprise, although after
its revelation, I was able to trace back where the author subtly
telegraphed the killer’s identity. But I also recognized that he folded
in clues all along the way designed to lead the reader away from the
truth. I swallowed them, hook, line and sinker.

There are no easy resolutions in this book. Grandhi lacks the kind of
sensibility that wants everything to work out in the end, and this is to
his credit. Rather than patent resolutions to problems, he instead
enters into the heart of darkness that is the human soul, ripping apart
any holy clothing that any of us may think we wear. The whole thing
just brims over with evil and suffering, mysticism and superstition,
and, in the end, a powerful argument for rationality and the triumph of
the human spirit.

“A Circle of Souls” is just about the best novel I’ve read in years,
hands down. Returning to my opening words in this book, although I
loved the read, and have come away with an enormous admiration for the
author, I still have no idea why Cedar Fort has picked up this imprint.
Whatever the reason, I’m glad they did. I might not ever have met
this book, and I would have been the poorer for it.

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