A young Jessica is on hand to hear the results of an exorcism conducted by her Father Douglas Mackinnon, a Deacon in the Catholic Church, on her mother. Her mother dies during the exorcism and Douglas is held accountable for her death, even the Church doesn't believe his defence of demonic possession. Fleeing the notoriety gained via the resulting court case Douglas disappears into the wilds of his native Scotland.

Twenty Five years later Jessica is now marred to David Newman and has a teenage son Alex. She hasn't got over the trauma from her past, and as if to enforce that Jessica along with her family have travelled to Scotland to settle the estate of her father who has recently died. But things from the past linger on, and in a terrifying night spent in the crumbling family mansion on the Grampian highlands Jessica will be forced to revisit the terrors of her youth. The power of Christ compels us to sprinkle some holy water on this book.

Greg Chapman joined the Australian Horror Writer's Association back in 2009 and immediately enlisted in the mentoring program under famed Aussie dark dreamer Brett McBean. Proving the AHWA's program works Torment is the result.

While it would be easy to compare Torment to Blatty's The Exorcist, that would be a pretty lazy comparison as Chapman hunts out a completely different take on things to the one Blatty immortalised. Sure we have an exorcism that goes disastrously wrong for those involved, but Chapman restricts his ceremony to the first few pages of the book and focuses on the impact the exorcism had on his protagonist rather than making the possession and resulting exorcism the main event. Thus rather than a religious didactic account we get more of a psychological viewpoint from Jessica's tortured mind, and the impact of dark things from the past bubbling to the surface once again.

Central to Torment is Jessica blaming her father for her mother's death and being quite convinced he is going to hell, (a real place for her), as a result of the adults around her placing blame. Actually Jessica's fearless belief in the Church and what it stands for is a result of imprinting by her Father through lecture and living conditions. While this may lead you to think that Jessica is above all else a weak character who can be manipulated (for want of a better word), Chapman is at pains to point out her strength rests in her strong religious belief and by book's end that strength will rest in Jessica herself quite separately from her faith. So in essence Chapman achieves in Torment one of the crucial requirements of good writing, his protagonist grows as a person due to the events in the prose rather than remaining a static cardboard cut-out. Whether or not the Reader gains any insight into the human condition would depend on his/her own belief system or at least willingness to accept that others may have faith. Something about windows into the soul, I'm with Queen Liz on that count.

Chapman skilfully constructs his book interspersing current action with flashbacks to events on and following that fateful evening in Boston 1984. Perhaps one of the weaknesses of Torment is that the Author categorically states via his prose that Jessica's mother was possessed by a demon, rather than leaving that question to be resolved later in the book. Thus the Reader already views Douglas Mackinnon as a heroic figure who loses all after battling the forces of darkness. To an extent we know where the book is going to head, a reconciliation between Jessica and the memory of her Father. Intriguingly however, and a real strength of Torment, is the fact that Jessica still harbours a lot of resentment toward her Father due in large measure to her Father's religious teaching. When she meets the Bishop Jessica's parting shoot is, “I know I’ll never see Daddy again, he’ll be in Hell”.

There's a few chills going down prior to the big face off in the cellar the entire book is aimed at getting Jessica involved in. Besides the initial exorcism, for the record I'm always up for a well written exorcism scene and Chapman nails it, Alex being contacted by a supernatural entity via his iPod worked in an unsettling fashion, and when Jessica finds her Father's bible I had a nice chill going down my spine. The Author maintains a grim atmosphere at the family mansion of decay and abandonment, that sort of makes you question your decision to read Torment after dark. I hit the book early morning and had to take my head phones off in case something evil was creeping up behind me unheard, from the darkened doorway of the study.

I guess some people are going to question the final block of the book. Yes faith overcoming demonic entities might be a tad trite in modern times, but it goes to Jessica growing as a much stronger person due to her final confrontation. Besides which the use of a tortured ghost as a plot device was working like a brought one. End of day isn't religion all about faith, hence if Jessica retains her belief, then her faith must be a strength?

It's been a while since I've read a strong demonic possession novel, they seem few and far between recently, so Greg Chapman with Torment delivered on one of my favourite topics in the dark genre. I had a good time between the book covers and have no hesitation in recommending this one to anyone reading. Chapman can write a line of prose, and uses that skill to good effect in Torment.

If after a copy of Torment then try Damnation books or simply hit your normal online purchase option.