An Angel of Obedience

Jackson Carter just wants a normal life.

Sure, at thirteen, he's just retired from an illustrious career as a classical musician and entered Harvard as a freshman mathematics major. And yeah, he's responsible for raising his two younger brothers while mom is off in Brazil or Thailand spending every last dime they have. But he'd still just like a couple of friends to hang out with and maybe even a girlfriend.

But a normal life just isn't Jackson's destiny. He has become obsessed with patterns: the mathematical properties found in the formation of clouds, the outline of a mustard stain on a picnic table, the intricate working of light and dark found in a curtain at the Sydney Opera House. When his mathematics instructor shows him a fractal image, Jackson becomes so engrossed that he cannot look away.

Then someone hammers a pre-Roman curse to his front door summoning an angry demon, and his littlest brother starts receiving messages from Eddie Cochran, the dead Rockabilly singer. And, of course, there are the corporate paramilitary units stalking the parking lots of Harvard, his other brother's hysterical blindness, and a demented ex-weatherman from Little Rock, Arkansas who thinks Jackson is an evil genius who needs a good ass-kicking.

And, oh yeah, everyone seems to think Jackson may be the anti-Christ.

So much for a normal life.

An Angel of Obedience is the sometimes funny, sometimes scary, always exciting tale of Jackson Carter, boy genius, over-burdened older brother, and potential destroyer of the known universe. It's a story that just goes to prove that when time and space are on the brink of extinction, that's when you need your friends and family the most.