A prophet never loses his calling, only his way.
Disfigured with a hideous scar from his stepmother, Zeph Walker lives
his life in seclusion, cloistering himself in a ramshackle bookstore on
the outskirts of town. But Zeph is also blessed with a gift, an uncanny
ability to foresee the future, to know peoples' deepest sins and
secrets. He calls it the Telling, but he has abandoned this gift to a
life of solitude, unbelief, and despair until two detectives escort him
to the county morgue where he finds his own body lying on the gurney. On
the northern fringes of Death Valley, the city of Endurance is home to
llama ranches, abandoned mines, roadside attractions...and the mythical
ninth gate of hell. Now, forced to investigate his own murder, Zeph
discovers something even more insidious behind the urban legends and
small-town eccentricities. Early miners unearthed a megalith, a sacred
site where spiritual and physical forces converge and where an ancient
subterranean presence broods. And only Zeph can stop it. But the scar on
Zeph's face is nothing compared to the wound on his soul. For not only
has he abandoned his gift and renounced heaven, but it was his own
silence that spawned the evil. Can he overcome his own despair in time
to seal the ninth gate of hell? His words unlocked something
deadly, And now the silence is killing them.
