The Enlightenment Project

Lynn Hightower, Severn House (MAR 1) Hardcover $28.99 (256pp) 978-0-7278-5088-1

In Lynn Hightower’s supernatural thriller The Enlightenment Project, a preeminent neurosurgeon who is researching the effects of spirituality on the brain opens a door to dark forces.

Noah earned acclaim for his record of successful treatments resulting in profound improvements in the quality of life for his patients. He’s built a wonderful life, with a loving wife, adopted sons, and a canine companion. But Noah holds a dark secret, one he’s only shared with Father Perry, who was responsible for saving him as a child: he was once possessed. The priest performed a precise ritual to pull the demon from him.

The men’s long friendship and working relationship is brought to the fore as Noah begins a research study, the Enlightenment Project, to produce a meditative effect in his patients in order to treat mental illness. In the course of the project: Noah experiences sensations that evoke his childhood possession. Shadows move around him, patients know secrets from his past, and a red-haired man stalks his family. With Father Perry’s help, Noah works to confront the looming darkness and keep innocent people safe.

Establishing unsettling tones early on, the book’s tension mounts, even during its quiet, tender moments. Both the medical and supernatural elements are detailed in engrossing terms. But human connections are at the heart of the novel’s draw: the relationships that Noah has with the priest, his family members, and patients and their loved ones anchor the narrative, which exalts the power of honest and loving relationships.

The realms of medicine and the supernatural collide when a study attracts the attention of demons in the paranormal thriller The Enlightenment Project.