"Cutting edge horror"

Christian owns a thriving gallery, has a beautiful visage, and is wealthy beyond most people's dreams. Yet he is the most miserable being walking the earth. He is a three thousand-year-old demon who has no internal organs except a brain. His body contains uncountable scarabs (beetles), flesh eating bugs that must be fed every night otherwise Scarabus, as he calls himself, knows the pain of the damned.

Scarabus was not always like this. Once he was a man who lived and loved in Middle Egypt. The Scarabus cult performed a magical ritual on him, hoping to create a demon they could bind to their will so they can use him to rule upper and lower Egypt. Their plan failed and Scarabus killed all his creators including his own father and father- in-law. Now he walks the earth searching for a way to end his existence and halt the use of his body as a vessel of the scarabae who want to bring him under their control.

Scarabus the demon is a monster who killed over two million people in his lifetime but yet readers will not feel contempt towards him as if he was Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot. They will pity him for he did not choose his existence, but was betrayed into it by the very people that he thought loved him. His perspective of humanity throughout the ages is fascinating and readers will understand his desire to end his unholy existence. Karen Koehler has written an enthralling, cutting edge novel that will please fans of horror novels.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted September 7, 2002

Summary

Lord of the Damned Call him Scarabus. Call him the Damned. For over three thousand years the demon known as Scarabus has waged a one- man war on the cult of mad zealots who created him. Able to command the elements around him and change his shape at will, he can appear as a beautiful young man--or as a swarm of bloodthirsty insects. Scarabus exists immortal in time and space, lord of darkness, servant to none. Now things are changing. Things are becoming. The once proud and loveless demon has grown weary of his endless nights of murder and wandering. In his own words comes the history of a being with no life--and no death. Journey with Scarabus through the dark veil of years, from the lush beauty of Ancient Middle Kingdom Egypt to the decadent nightclub splendor of 21st Century Chicago as he walks the night, searching for the woman he loves, searching for an escape from a living damnation on earth. Scarabus the Damned. Scarabus, Deathbringer. A man who is a monster, he hopes to salvage his lost soul and take revenge on those who destroyed his life. Every man lives. Not every man truly dies... From the best-selling author of Slayer.