A mysterious recording of a fatal exorcism, a desperate phone call in the night, and determination to finally know the truth behind her sister’s mysterious death compel Diana Chambers to return to the demon-haunted world of her childhood. Diana was born Deborah Hebert, the third daughter of popular demonologists Denny and Lucille Hebert. She changed her name and left the misty bayous of south Louisiana for the bustling campus of Vanderbilt University, teaching religious studies and exposing religious manipulation as one way to create something good out of her childhood traumas. Now, she must return to face her divided family and a shadowy force that wants to destroy them all. Have her parents been right all along? Are demonic forces at work trying to destroy their family? Or is there an all too human enemy conspiring against them?
The Demonologists’ Daughters introduces the world to my favorite dysfunctional family, born from my imagination and aiming to become one of your favorite dysfunctional families too. I started drafting this mystery thriller with horror elements in the spring and summer of 2021. After a couple of years of editing the manuscript and pitching agents, the book was released by Scotland Publications in the fall of 2024. I set out, first and foremost, to tell a great story with compelling characters. I believe that should always be the first goal of any storyteller. One reason so much Christian fiction in all media formats continues to be so wooden and stilted is because Christian creators focus more on the message they are trying to teach than the quality of the story that carries their message. I enjoyed two advantages that helped me avoid this problem. Story has always mattered to me. Even when I teach history in the classroom, I present it in a narrative style. Secondly, while I did hope to teach people something, that didactic goal was subservient to the quality of the story and more expansive than just trying to get people to see things from a particular point of view. I aim to prompt questions rather than proscribe answers, conversation and contemplation rather than indoctrination. The Demonologists’ Daughters prompts deep reflection about religious issues and trauma, but it in no way, shape, or form is a “Christian” book in the sense of conforming to the tired tropes of evangelical Christian subcultures. My novel is intentionally broader in focus. And it is stronger for it.
The novel grew from my experiences and insights gleaned from seven combined years of general staff ministry as a youth minister and minister of education, eight years as a pastor, and seventeen years of teaching history and religious studies at the university level. Asking deep questions about faith and doubt is baked into my DNA. There was no way some of that wouldn’t infuse the book. I was also inspired by research I have been doing for a nonfiction book on the Satanic Panic. The story of Ed and Lorraine Warren captured my attention. The Warrens were the amateur demonologist couple from Connecticut whose “cases” and claims inspired James Wan’s Conjuring films. The Warrens investigated popular cases of hauntings and possession from the early 70s to the early 2000s, including the Amityville Horror, the Enfield Poltergeist, and the Arne Cheyenne Johnson trial. Critics raised serious questions about the Warrens and their methods throughout their lives. Many critics viewed the Warrens as insincere hucksters preying on the gullible. Allegations that Ed carried on an affair with a live-in underaged woman with Lorraine’s full knowledge and support dogged production of the early Conjuring films, which were obligated by contract to always show the Warrens’ marriage as loving and traditional.
I was drawn in particular to the story of their daughter, Judy, and her husband, Tony Spero. Judy and Tony became the caretakers of her parents’ legacy after Lorraine died. They maintained the Warrens’ museum of curiosities, including the infamous allegedly haunted Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle. The Speros have continued to work with the producers of the Conjuring series. They maintain a positive view of Judy’s parents and their work in all their interviews. Judy seems content living in the shadow of her parents’ legacy. I began to wonder what growing up that way would be like. How would your experiences be different from other kids’? What kinds of trauma would you pick up along the way? What if you decided you didn’t want to be tied to your parents’ world or that you no longer believed what they believed? What if the Warrens had four daughters instead of one, and those other daughters rejected the “family business.”
The Heberts were born from these questions. The four daughters in the story were raised in an atmosphere of constant spiritual warfare and paranormal lore where, at any moment, daily life and typical family rituals could be disrupted by “deliverance” appointments. The story focuses on the three surviving adult Hebert sisters as they struggle to solve the mystery behind the death at their father’s latest exorcism session. As the story unfolds, Diana, Delilah, and Dorcas discover that solving this mystery may also finally reveal the reason their oldest sister died under equally mysterious circumstances thirty years ago.
A detailed list of all the issues covered in the book would reveal too many spoilers. I look forward to discussing some of those more spoiler-heavy connections to contemporary issues after the book has been out for a while. An obvious spoiler-free issue embedded throughout this story is how we reconcile the faiths handed to us by our parents with the realities we encounter through deeper study and life experience. This conversation over faith “deconstruction” was stimulated by the emergence of the “Exvangelical” movements over the last decade and accelerated by evangelicals’ overwhelming support for Donald Trump in two election cycles. Many faithful Christians spent their lives serving the ideals of evangelical Christianity only to find themselves abandoned by their subcultures and even attacked for holding to the very ideals of love, empathy, compassion, ethics, and integrity they were taught to follow. Faith becomes toxic when it’s mixed with fear. The Heberts handle their traumatic past in different ways, and their struggles resonate with the continuing quest of so many adults to make peace with the demons of their religious past.
Diana reflects at one point in the book on how religion holds so much power to do both great good and great harm. Like a double-edged sword, it accelerates and amplifies human attributes. Faith can inspire humans to build homes and mend bodies and hearts. It can also twist hearts towards fanaticism, leading to the destruction of nations and the extermination of entire people groups. As the book’s trailer tagline reminds us, the most terrifying demons are the ones we create ourselves. I hope the story will encourage people to continue hearing and believing those abused within religious communities, motivating us to be part of the process of healing and securing true justice.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. Grace appears even in the darkest places. The Heberts find that grace in unexpected places throughout the narrative despite the horrors they face along the way. We live in a world of horrors today. Grace will be needed to sustain and motivate us to face the challenges ahead. Hopefully, books like this can provide a way to take a break from the struggle while giving us fresh perspectives to take back with us when we return. Our stories give us strength and hope as we continue to write the great human story.
Come enjoy the journey.
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