Gifted Trust

by John Paul Allen

Three men separated by time, are connected through one soul. A literary agent, a teacher, a serial killer, and a shared secret. With death it only starts again. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972948503
• ISBN13: 9780972948500
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Biting Dog Publications
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.6" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Brutal and haunting - not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach

There is evil in the world, and this evil is reborn. Its name is Virago. The book opens in the 1930's with the tale of Max Belote, a successful man with a happy marriage. But Max is haunted by the voice inside his head, a voice that forces him to commit unspeakable acts. Max makes sure his wife is financially taken care of before taking care of the daemon inside him - by ending his life in dramatic style. In 1977, Jeffrey Michael Roberts tells his story of horrendous evil. A convicted predator and murderer, Roberts tells the story of his life and what he'd done to an innocent mother and child to land him on death row. This portion of the book is written in first person, giving an interesting twist to the style of the book. Jeffrey is followed by Judith, a woman on the run from her abusive husband, abandoning her life with hopes of a future. In 2001, Coach Ed Paine has a secret, something he's only talked to his therapist about, not even mentioning it to best friend Samantha Troxell. Ed gets called on the carpet when the principal of Discovery High School gets a hold of a manuscript Ed has written, a manuscript Ed insists is fiction but contains shocking details from the life and crimes of one Jeffrey Michael Roberts. Meanwhile, friend Samantha suffers from a repeated dream depicting violence upon a child. There's a surprise twist in store for you in this section of the tale. Interwoven into each person's lives is Virago, an evil soul that cannot inhabit a body of its own so it must share a body with unwilling, or willing, host souls. Warning: This book contains explicit violence, particularly against children. There's an explicit rape scene that made me want to send money to every center that helps victimized women and children, and take revenge for all the victims. These scenes aren't easy to read. The storyline is tightly woven and extremely well-written, enough to overlook the flaws of the cheaper publishing house and the few editorial mistakes. Thank goodness that there are publishers that will take chances on new, extraordinary authors. If you love horror and don't mind it served on a vicious platter, then you shouldn't miss out on this book. I literally couldn't put it down. Enjoy!

One Of The Best!

*SOME POSSIBLE SPOILERS* Before having the opportunity to read this book, I was privilaged to be able to talk to JPA. He gave me the following warning, "In GT very bad things happen to women and children." It's a warning I was very thankful for. This book is a wonderful work of fiction that touches heavily on things that are occuring in reality today. Rape, kidnapping, torture of women and children, suicide. Very real things being brought to stunning life in the pages of fiction. Sad as it may seem, bad things happen every day to women/children everywhere, and men to a lesser extent. Some reviews I've read have made me believe that some people just want to read pure fiction and not have to deal with issues that lurk around in reality. If that's the case, they should probably stick to The Cat in the Hat. But that's just me. This book is not for the weak of heart or stomach. Especially stomach. It's gory, twisted, and extremely dark. It's the hardest book I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Unfortunately I have to pump myself to read it, so it's not a leasure read I find pulling from my shelves for brain candy. Put Virago aside for a moment and just read. It's a blatant wake up call for parents, and people in general. Even if it wasn't intended to be that way, it is. Think deeply of the situations these people get placed in. Or place themselves in. If there are typos and publishing problems, I didn't notice them. If such problems are there, ignore them and just read the book! It's truly gutwrenching with its reality. I think I'll also post what I origionally told JPA about this book. "Feedback #1- As a parent I absolutely loathed the book. It made me cringe, cry, and nine times out of ten, made me want to take the book to the burn barrel (no trash pickup at the inlaws, they burn it) and dance a happy jig as it went up in diesel fueled flames. It was the hardest book I've ever read, and parts of it made me wonder.... Feedback #2- As an avid reader of horror and the bizarre, I loved your book. It was very well written and got into my head, making me realize just how absolutely screwed a good portion of the human race really is. The words flowed well, and caused a good many nightmares (which is a plus in horror) not to mention that it caused my MIL to leave me alone for most of the trip when she idly picked up the book and read a random page. Judging from her reaction it was the Michael Roberts part she skimed. I can understand why this book was so difficult to write, but the ending left me ranting. I'm pretty sure my reviews are a bit off, but I had to keep reminding myself to turn off my "parental brain" or I would have broken my promise and thrown the book. Not at a wall mind you, but off of a mountain in Montana. My husband is currently trying to read it now, and I've given him a slew of warnings. I doubt he'll be able to finish it though. But I'll keep prodding him to finish it. The ending was actually something of a pleasant surpr

How Wrong Can One Reviewer Be?

I just read the review from the guy (I assume it was a male) from Brooklyn and felt the need to point out that he read the original version of Gifted Trust. I can tell this because he quoted the back cover of the book. For those of you who don't know, John Paul Allen published his novel a second time (the first was a self-published novel) with a regular publisher. The new edition has nine extra chapters, was excellently edited by Nancy Collins and it's one of the best and most frightening works I've read this year. I agree that the first edition had it's share of errors, but JPA has more than made up for it. I'd give it ten stars if I could.

I couldn't put it down...

Awesome.. Scarey... Disturbing...John Paul Allen takes you through 7 decades, many lives And one very evil soul!!Not for the squimish this book is scarey and disturbing. You will never let you kids out of your site again.

Father of Nightmares

Like an approaching creature, "Gifted Trust" will circle you and then move in for the kill. John Paul Allen brings to you a novel like no other. When I read "Gifted Trust" an overwhelming fear took hold over me and pulled me deeper within the pages of this dark tale. I can't recall ever reading a book in my life that made my skin crawl until "Gifted Trust" knocked on my door. His words will amaze you and his thoughts will haunt you. He is the Father of Nightmares. -Kingdom of Shadows Review