The Sins of Orville Sand

Phil Locascio
Mundania Press (2006)
ISBN 159426242X
Reviewed by Ellen Hogan for Reader Views (10/06)

Whenever Orville Sand is around someone dies. It is always said to be an accident.  Orville has a book with a list of names, their addresses, date of birth and date of death.

Gerald Mizzaro is a young boy the first time he meets Orville. Gerald lives with his mother and she rents out a room for extra money. When Orville came to town he rented the room and got to know Gerald and his mom. Gerald didn't know his father and kind of looked at Orville as a substitute father while he was there. One day Gerald was snooping in Orville's room and found the book of names. It was an accident when Gerald ripped out one of the pages.

After high school Gerald attended Northern Illinois, where he met Myron Reeding.  During this time his friends were into drinking and drugs. They were driving along one day when Gerald sees Orville standing on the side of the road. It wasn't until Myron died that Gerald remembered the book and the page that was torn out. When he was home visiting his mother he retrieved the page and saw what he thought he had remembered --Myron's name was on the page.

Gerald decides he has to stop Orville from causing any more accidents. So, he goes to the helpless shelter that Sister Mary Vitello works at. He gets a job there himself to keep an eye on her and deter any accident she might have. Orville finds out that he is there and manages to get him out of the kitchen. While Gerald is gone the Sister has her accident and she dies.  For the next name Gerald decides that he will kidnap Emily and keep her safe. This is where the story gets interesting. Needless to say good will triumph over evil but you will have to read that for yourself.

This book was very hard to get into. In fact, it really didn't grab me until I was about half to three quarters of the way through. The ending is quite suspenseful though and I found I couldn't put it down until it was finished.

The writer told the story well and I would recommend it. If you like a heart pounding ending you will love “The Sins of Orville Sand.”

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