Fantastic book. I have yet to find a bad book by Hunter Shea. Raul was a character that made you relate instantly. The reaction seemed so natural and the following weeks were how I think many people would feel. The contrast with adding Sam and Felix was absolutely inspired. The whole book had you confused with a not easily guessed twist near the end. I loved it and would encourage everyone to read and recommend.

One of the more tiresome aspects of ghost stories in popular American horror fiction is its reliance on Christianity to save the day. Too often, the Church is presented as some megalithic, supernaturally endowed savior that runs completely contrary to the historic record rife with Crusades, witch hunts, torture, enslavement, child rape, the covering up of child rapes and protection of pedophile priests, mass murder, and the GOP. God, the invisible man with magic powers who lives in the sky, and who was, according to mythology, responsible for mankind's first holocaust via drowning in a global flood and championed child murder as an exhibition of one's faith, is cast as the super-saccharine Good Guy who just wants peace and love.

What initially makes Hunter Shea's Faithless so compelling is that its central character, Father Raul Figeuroa, discovers just how weak and meaningless his faith truly is following the absolutely brutal murder of his wife and two children. As a man of the cloth, he's supremely jolted to discover that his reality and his beliefs no longer jive, and that he's been living a lie. In the aftermath of his tragedy, and having abandoned both the church and God, Raul escapes to his deceased aunt's farmhouse to drink and drug himself to death. Unfortunately, the house is not as empty as Raul thought and he begins hearing voices and sounds that could only be coming from his dead family.

Faithless strikes a strong note in its premise, and maintains that strength for roughly two-thirds of the book, giving us a slow, somber, character-driven potboiler in the vein of Shea's Creature and We Are Always Watching. As the ghosts accompanying Raul's drunken days and nights grow progressively bolder, Shea delivers several legitimately chilling and superbly creepy moments, not to mention a few glorious wrinkles to the plot.
Unfortunately, it's an all too common trope that when a central character loses their faith, it will be magically restored by book's end and all their rightful questioning and justified condemnation of their comfortable, and false, beliefs will be forgotten in light of the fictional evidence of God's work. Such revelations are typically laughable at best, but Shea's climax may take the cake as Raul is plunged through one ludicrous scenario and ridiculous revelation after another.

For all of the nifty hooks Faithless's plot hangs on, and the exciting hairpin turns the narrative takes, the third act is absolutely impossible to take seriously as it revels in one messy, nonsensical, and goofy reveal after the next, destroying whatever goodwill the preceding acts had built up. How silly? Well, spoiler alert but, Shea's conclusion hinges on a deux ex machina involving angels that shoot rainbow lasers from their eyes, a magic cat, and an unmasking of a cultist straight out of Scooby-Doo. It's so harebrained and daffy, not to mention tonally skewed with its ever escalating foolishness, from all that came before that it feels like the finale of an entirely different book from a completely different author altogether. Shea cobbles together so many outlandish absurdities that this ending requires not just the willful suspension of disbelief, but the suspension of all brain activity whatsoever. It's the kind of insane, whacky dreck you half-expect Nicolas Cage to walk in on to start chewing up the scenery. And then, after all is said and done, Shea shifts the tone one last time to end the book on a grossly misogynistic zinger, just in case everything hadn't already been completely soured. I suppose, at least, the casual sexism is perfectly in keeping with Biblical teachings.

Faithless is at its best when its exploring its themes of religious faith as a man-made sham, but descends into vapid silliness as Shea pulls a 180 on readers and characters alike, taking what could have been a serious and original look at interesting concepts in a fresh way and contorts them into a cliched and stupid mishmash of whackadoo Christian Fiction trash.

My actual review is coming later than release date. I'm behind on my review stack which is why I've stopped accepting book requests. I expect to read and review this in November. Sarah at Flame Tree Press is familiar with me and setting me up with copies and knows I will be following through with this book still. Thanks to Flame Tree and Netgalley for this digital review copy.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First, a disclaimer of sorts, I am a BIG Hunter Shea fan. His books covering various cryptozoological subjects are sublime in the category. That's why I was so excited to read "Faithless" which ventures far away from that topic.

I wasn't disappointed and neither will be Shea's legion of Hellion fans.

"Faithless" starts with one of the most gut-wrenching beginnings of any book I've read this year as Episcopalian priest Raul Figeruroa's wife and children are violently murdered as he's talking with them on the phone while driving back from a trip. Raul's helplessness and guilt carry over long past their funerals and the unsuccessful attempt by the police to solve the killings. Raul determines that the only way he can deal with these feelings is to leave his home and move to the unoccupied farm of his deceased aunt, Ida, far from the city, his church, and the death of his family.

Determined to drink and drug himself into a never-ending stupor, Raul goes about doing just that over the next few months as he falls deeper into despondency and depression. Not only that, but during these periods of incoherency, Raul is sure that he's hearing the voices of his wife and children. Is the house haunted or is he slowly losing his mind? Possibly, the only thing that keeps him from completely going over the edge is the appearance of a feral cat, Bruiser, who "adopts" Raul. That, and a surprise visit from his old friend Felix, who's determined not only to save Raul but find the killers.

Author Shea does a great job describing Raul's despair and hopelessness as he's unable to process the loss of his family, not to mention the supernatural overtones of Ida's farmhouse. Once Felix arrives on the scene, the plot really takes off in a different direction filled with a variety of surprises and plot twists that will keep even the most inveterate mystery/thriller readers guessing to the end.

Highly recommended!

Beginning with a life-shattering event, the horror within these pages involves the destructive nature of grief in a starring role, as well as some more expected facets, even as those aspects lead in unexpected directions. Bleak and brutal but with an essential thread of hope, this book mixes religion into horror in a way that hasn't been done to death.

I think if I were handed an untitled ARC with no author name, I would still immediately recognize a Hunter Shea. He is never repetitive, but his writing possesses a certain identifiable aura, which signals his authorship.

And speaking of Possession...Mr. Shea dives in with a seriously disturbing reader's hook, and since he excels at delivering implacable terror, of course he never relents. Rev. Raul Figueroa is an Episcopal priest with a delightful family: a devoted wife, son, and daughter. But one night on the way home from supervising a prayer meeting, Raul drives into a tremendous rainstorm, and a nightmare he could never have imagined. His faith is destroyed, and he leaves the priesthood and moves to his late aunt's farmhouse, where he expects to drink himself into eventual oblivion in the grave.

But the deceased, although gone, are not forgotten; nor have they forgotten him. Possibly the dead are not really absent at all...

Raul, an Episcopalian priest is driving home in the rain to his family. He drives through a puddle which stops his car while talking to his wife on the phone. The car “quits.” As he continues talking to his wife, he hears the kids starting to scream, he asks what’s going on when suddenly his wife is no longer there. In desperation, he jumps out of his car, crosses the busy highway and runs home. When he opens the door, he can’t believe his eyes. Raul decides to quit being a priest as he has no faith. He decides to go to his deceased Aunt Ida’s home so he will be left alone. At the house, a cat comes around and stays with Raul though Raul tries to scare it away. He ends up calling his female cat Bruiser. Why? Raul gets a visitor from his childhood past. Felix and Raul were best friends growing up. Will Felix help him with his grief? Is Raul finding any relief from his grief?

This horror novel with a mystery in it makes it a page Turner. I couldn’t stop reading it. The supernatural is woven in perfectly with the horror so that I was amazed how it just flowed and didn’t become “choppy” as some horror novels do when they include a mystery. It was something I never suspected. This is a well written novel with unique twists and turns. All horror readers will enjoy this book as much as I did!

Hunter throws the reader straight into the deep end with a brutally violent first chapter in Faithless. The sort of incomprehensible behaviour that leaves you stunned at the capabilities of the human race and desperate to know, WHY?
Immediately I knew this would be another emotional ride from Mr Shea, the master of heartbreaking horror.

The writing as I've come to expect from this author, is raw and powerful.
Raul is grieving. Feeling he has nothing more to live for and certainly no reason to uphold his faith as a priest, he holes himself up in a remote creaky old house inherited from his deceased aunt.
With a daily regiment of alcohol and meds, accompanied only by a persistent stray cat, who can tell whether the strange sounds and occurrences in that house are real or a byproduct of Raul's tortured mind?

When Felix- a childhood friend from Raul's dark past- visits with the offer to hunt down his family's murderers Raul agrees, if only to be left to grieve in solitude, but what Felix finds will blow everyone's mind.

Faithless is written in third person following the stories of Raul and Felix. I very much enjoyed the relationship between fallen priest and ex con, the bond of a life long friendship that endured two character's opposing paths in life.
The side character of church caretaker Samson complimented the story brilliantly. A priest, a retired cop and an ex con, what a line up! The dynamic between all three added a little timely humour and some much needed humanity to this dark story.

Faithless starts out as ghostly presences in a tired old house but becomes so much more. The pace picks up in the last third of the novel as revelations burst from the pages thick and fast. I found the twists unexpected yet they fit the narrative without feeling gimmicky as some do. I won't say more, nobody likes a spoiler!

At around the middle of Faithless I started to wonder if the plot would pick up. A lonely man in a lonely house on a repetitive cycle was likely going to lose my interest soon. I kept reading, if you find yourself at this point I promise you should too, it's about to get wild!

Top marks from me once again to Mr Shea and Flame Tree Press, label me a fan for life.

Faithless by Hunter Shea tells the story of Father Raul Figueroa, an Episcopalian priest, who loses his wife and two children in a brutal home invasion murder. Raul is overcome with grief and as the title says, loses his faith in God. He abandons the church and moved to his deceased Aunt Ida’s rural home. He decides to numb himself with a mixture of alcohol and prescription drugs until he dies; however, he begins to hear things in his new home and he wonders if ghosts could be real. This is just how the book opens. I’ve seen a couple of reviews which spoil the plot twists. I personally avoid spoilers so I enjoyed just following the story.
At its heart, Faithless is a story about the effects of grief. It is obviously also a story about belief in a higher power. It’s also a story of love and redemption. Shea managed to make me genuinely care what happened to Raul.

Make space in your heart for Shea's explosive exploration of faith -- faith in religion, trust, and sanity.

Personally, it was really hard for me to get started. Right off the bat, children are murdered in cold blood. It's not subtle and I had to take some time off from the book. When I came back to it, I found Father Raul in the depths of depression. And I mean WAY down in the depths. He's drinking so heavily I don't know how he lived through it. He's so grief-stricken that he hears his family's voices. There are ghosts in his house. He almost finds peace with this, but before long, the ghosts stop playing fair.

Felix, fresh out of prison, hears about Raul's family and rushes to prop up his childhood friend in his time of need. He's determined to help in every way he can, and the strength of their friendship is pushed to its absolute limit. Without giving away spoilers, I can say the tone of the story takes a sharp left in the final third. After a slow, painful burn, the heat gets turned up. All the way up.

This book is hard. It's exhausting. It's not light reading by any means, but it does offer some food for thought. If you're into religious horror, this is your jam. If not, give your heart a break and try one of the author's creature features.

This book is going to be a real struggle for me to rate because while it was a decent book and the writing is very well done it also was very dry at times as well as overly & unnecessarily descriptive. It doesn’t help the book is about <spoiler>a cult. In a sense it’s also about spirits so that’s at least a check in my good column. </spoiler> This is a personal preference, I just don’t like the subject matter so bear that in mind. The book starts with an absolute bang as readers silently bear witness to Father Raul’s worst kind of nightmare. It’s extremely brutal and while not new to the genre it is something to note for anyone with trigger towards children being hurt. However the momentum tapers right off and doesn’t pick up again until about 60% which was a huge downer. All the while the MC is also going through a complete downward spiral. His life is spinning out of control and grief is his closest friend along with the bottle. It was pretty depressing honestly and the day to day monotonous descriptions were a bit of a drag. That being said there were minor creepy moments thrown in-possible spirit encounters: voices, furniture moving, shadows etc. So the good and the bad do kind of even themselves out. The end was in a typical horror fashion a bit bittersweet, wild and very fitting for the characters as well. <Spoiler>Wish I could forget the poor ex cop being burned alive on the cross though, that’s for sure 😢</spoiler> The book is not overly heavy on religion as the MC gives up the priesthood after the ‘incident’ but it does overshadow the book and play a role in the climax FYI. I will say the book did have me on my toes few times, unsure what was real, questioning Raul’s sanity and the narrators honesty. The character of Raul also copycats the stereotypical male character in many horror films and books if only you replace his being a priest with any number of professions, which didn’t make the book didn’t feel overly unique. It’s crazy how many stories are based on grieving widows & parents going through a number of otherworldly events. <Spoiler>I think it was pretty clever to have the haunting’s Raul experienced explained away by the cult f*cking with him. But then when his wife does appear in the fire and then the children it gives some truth to the cults beliefs and heaven/hell. </spoiler> The book read like pieces of 13 Ghosts minus the strange house meets any number of films where the mc is haunted by his lost family and something sinister is afoot. I’ll definitely check out the authors other works in hopes they’ll be a little less culty, religious and depressing.

Faithless is a rare miss for Hunter Shea.
The book sees Shea step away from his usual creature novel to tackle a story about loss and grief, centered around a priest, Raul, who after hearing his family murdered over the phone, retreats to a relative's home to grieve in an alcoholic stupor.
But when he begins to hear voices from his dead family coming from the house's basement and attic, he is left to ponder if they are truly back or not.
It's a solid idea, let down by a story that spends too long wallowing in Raul's grief (and daily binge drinking sessions) before a hastily series of rushed plot twists - delivered via info dump - kick things into gear over the final few pages.
Raul is a passive protagonist and it takes the interjection of his friend Felix - who takes it on himself to investigate Raul's family's deaths - to advance the story.
It's a confusing development that leaves the story feeling more hollow than it should. Raul's descent to rock bottom works but it feels like a lot is missed by not allowing him to be the one that digs himself out.
There's a good book in this one. Sadly, the version we see on the page is not it.

Hunter Shea, what is there not to love. He gives his dark fiction/horror novels a real spin and takes his readers down a dark road with a no return ticket and his new novel is nothing short of pure high entertainment shocks and twists.

Faithless is about a minister who loses his faith due to the murder of his wife and two children. As he sinks into the depths of his depression by moving to an isolated farm house, things turn to the worse as his mind, alcoholism and anti-depressants start to take its toll. Hunter Shea has a great style and he pain sickeningly slows the decent of Raul takes as he is dealing with the loss of his family. He builds a slow burn to give it a realistic approach and this is where he excels.

Shea builds his world stone by stone and takes enough ample time to feel the depression, the destitute and general loss. He builds upon this and then slowly enters the darkness which start to take over. This is expertly done and helps ease the reader into the emotional depth of the main character.

As this is a Hunter Shea novel, things take a turn and then the slow burn moves into high octane and the reader is launched on a whirlwind story full of shocks, horror, violence and mystery being unwound and this turns a story about grief into a full well rounded enjoyment fest. Shea is able to turn his novels on a dime and he does this excellently as we are introduced to Raul’s long lost friend who is able to piece things together.

Overall, this is another excellent book by Hunter Shea who has become a firm favourite of mine. Taking horror and dark fiction and making it his own with his own uniqueness makes him a winning combination. This is an excellent novel and one that should be sought out by fans of the genre of horror and mystery. EXCELLENT

This was either the beginning of righteous retribution, or the moment his soul was damned.”
FAITHLESS by Hunter Shea drops on October 19th. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Father Raul is a priest with a good parish and a great family. Everything was wonderful, until it wasn’t. Life steers off course in the blink of an eye and beliefs change. What kind of God would allow such things to happen?Raul renounces his priesthood and moves in to his aunts abandoned home where he used to spend summers as a child. Something follows him.
Raul spirals down into despair fuels by grief, guilt and alcohol. He just wants to die. He starts hearing noises-hallucinations that sound like his wife and children- are they a blessing or a curse?
It is hard not to give any spoilers but Raul is a true human. He makes realistic choices after what happened to him as well as when the tense, and creepy paranormal kicks in.
With the help of a childhood friend, will Raul face his demons? find the guilty party? and get revenge?
More importantly-should he?
Will he find a way to be with his family again?
Good choice for those that love the paranormal, religious questions, and cults.
Thanks to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for a copy of the eARC for an honest review

Oh no. The first Hunter Shea book that I didn’t enjoy too much.
The spiel makes it sound really interesting and it does start off at a pace as a priest on his way home to wife and kids hears them being murdered over the phone and the grief and trauma leads to him losing his faith.

Using alcohol and drugs to try and dampen the pain, he moves to his late aunts house in the middle of nowhere, a place where he intends to slowly drink himself to death.
But all is not as it seems in the house as he starts believing that his dead wife and children are contacting and haunting him. Can this really be happening or is he so lost and so messed up from alcohol, drugs and lack of sleep that he is imagining things?

The set up in this is really good. It all starts to fall apart a bit when the story moves to the house. It all becomes a bit repetitive as it moves along very slowly. Then a rather awkwardly written in storyline of an old friend turning up out of the blue. I really had to suspend my disbelief to go along with this story arc.

After that it becomes a real mess. The occasional bright spark for a page or two but the further it goes the sillier it gets.

The final third of the book feels absolutely ludicrous and to top it all off, in the middle of all the violent silliness we have some massively corny, teeth rattling sugarly sweet things happening. I mean, come on. Give the read some credit.

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Shea. I knew the gist of this going in to it and expected a horror/supernatural book but I’m sorry to say this was just a poor effort and laughably bad at the end.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

This my first book by Hunter Shea and in no way will it be my last. This was gripping and had me pulled in the whole time!

I loved this book! I have loved all the Hunter Shea books I have read but, that's a different story for a different time.

This book we are taken on the ride of grief. I mean this book probably weighs 20 pounds just for the grief the main character feels.
One of my favorite things about this book is he throws a fun little twist in and at the time you are just like "this isn't gonna work" and let me tell you it does. It works and it's fantastic.

The characters are excellent and well written. You really want to pour yourself a drink and just be sad right along with everyone else.

I definitely recommend any book with Hunter Shea's name on it.

I have a deep love for creature horror, which is why I began reading Hunter Shea's books. Jurassic Florida. Loch Ness Revenge. Amazingly fun books! Then I read his book, Slash, and learned that Shea can write a twisty, thriller-horror book like no one else.

In Faithless, Father Raul Figeuroa loses his faith and all will to live when he hears his entire family murdered while he is stuck on the phone only a few miles from his home. When he moves to his aunt's old farmhouse, far away from anyone and everything he knows, he's determined to drink himself into oblivion. But something has followed him to this old, abandoned acreage. Is his family calling him to his eternal home, is he losing his mind, or is something more deeply unsettling happening here?

This starts out as a straight-up haunted house/haunted man story. Which I am all-in for. But just as in his other titles, you quickly learn that Shea's books can't be pigeonholed into one genre or sub-genre. I never know where Shea's books will take me, but I am ready to go!

Wow this latest novel from Hunter Shea really caught me out with the ending, but as always Hunter Shea has delivered, From the first page I was gripped and the slow descent of grief that priest Raul descends into after his whole family is mindlessly slaughted resonates on every page. its difficult to give a synopsis of what happens without giving anything away, all I will say is read it .

This book was SO MUCH fun!

I'm going to be honest, I didn't see that plot coming at me! I thought we were heading in one direction, and then there is a major reveal, and then there is one more reveal near the end. Pretty vague, I know, but I really don't want to spoil this for you as it is quite a wild ride.

The story is about Father Raul dealing with the loss of his wife and children. To mourn them, and to possibly end his own life, he returns to his childhood home. Things DO NOT go well for him there. Luckily, a friend from his childhood shows up also, and tries to help him deal with the strange things happening.

Shea makes every page creepy, and keeps you guessing about what is real and what is not. I think the end will surprise you, as it did me, and you will enjoy the maddness of it all.