The Godsend by Bernard Taylor

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In this tale of suspense, Alan looks back on the horror that tore apart his family, "going through the chain of events like tracing a circle, as if by doing so I could somehow rewrite the story."

On a picnic with his wife Kate, daughter Lucy (6), sons Davie (5) and Sam (3), and little Matthew, just six weeks old, they meet a solitary woman, her figure swollen with an unborn child. With a soft heart for strays, Kate talks with her; no one expects she would show up at their house that night. Forced to entertain, the woman will not take a hint to leave and ends up in contractions. Before a doctor can be reached, she has given birth to a baby girl. The next morning, the woman is gone, leaving the child behind. Already nursing Matthew, Kate begins to feed her, and they agree to officially adopt the girl. Everyone loves Bonnie.

The first tragedy is finding Matthew tangled in his cot, his skin cold and dead. Each year another child dies in a strange accident, Kate has a miscarriage, and Alan becomes sterile. Their English village of Little Haverstraw shuns them, and they are forced to move. Alan is convinced his daughter Lucy will be the next to die, but Kate refuses to believe a three-year-old could be so malicious. The only way Alan can save her is to kidnap her away from Kate and Bonnie—but Bonnie will never let anyone interfere with the power she is gaining. She is definitely not a normal child, and both Alan and Bonnie know what she is doing.

With a similar theme to The Omen by David Seltzer, this is a slow-burn thriller without escape. Not quite horror, just the steady dread of a father whose family is being systematically destroyed. An entertaining novel of demonic forces.

The Godsend was Taylor's first book and was faithfully filmed in Britain in 1980.

1978 / Hardcover / 184 pages