Effective Creepy Imagery. Uncomfortably Coarse.

S.E. England relates a chilling narrative about a mysterious committed psychiatric patient who is found to be possessed by a malevolent demon.. suddenly released by well-meaning doctors & nurses who are then "stalked" by the thing.
The setting - an insane asylum in misty, dank moors populated with the spirits of child victims of the Bubonic Plague - is atmospheric, the ghostly/demonic occurrences are skin-crawling, and the entity is frighteningly evil.
Less fortunately, England's overall plot is two-dimensional at the start (and becomes increasingly more complex) and she inserts explicit imagery & drops F-bombs where they aren't necessary. The goal of "shocking" readers/listeners too often feels manipulative.
Still, I genuinely enjoyed the scare.

Unhelpfully, reader Henrietta Meire doesn't help the scenario much with an overall "average" reading performance. To be certain, her diction, timbre, and cadence are commendable - and her Yorkshire accents are excellent - but the bulk of her voice-acting repertoire is either subpar or overacted (when the evil spirit speaks, it sounds suspiciously like Andy Serkis's 'Gollum' in the LOTR films, for example). After factoring in occasional "I-am-reading-a-book" disinterest, I have to conclude that Tantor Audio Inc. could have cast this project better.

In toto, 'Father Of Lies' rates 7.5 stars out of 10. It was a satisfying 'Plus' selection: great for a couple of quiet afternoons of listening.. but neither good enough to prompt me to continue with the 'Darkly Disturbing Occult Horror Trilogy' series, nor to recommend spending a Credit on it.

[Note: The book gets pretty philosophical at times on subjects like schizophrenia, drug addiction, and child rape. I admire the effort]

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