Carrion Comfort

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Carrion Comfort is a

• Dr Saul Laski, a psychiatrist who survived the holocaust in World War II, spent time in Israel, and who currently works at Columbia University.
• Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry, initially investigating murders in Charleston, South Carolina.
• Natalie Preston, a photographer whose father was killed and is determined to get answers and revenge.
• Tony Harod, a powerful Hollywood producer with minor use of 'The Ability' which he can only use on females. He often helps The Island Club with hopes of becoming a member.

The Trio

• Melanie Fuller, a powerful user of 'The Ability' at least as far back as the early 1910s in Vienna, Austria.
• Nina Drayton, a childhood friend of Melanie Fuller and an equally powerful user.
• Willi Borden, also known as Wilhelm Von Borchert, a
  SS
  , later reinventing his identity as a Hollywood producer and powerful user of 'The Ability'.

The Island Club

• C. Arnold Barent, a billionaire industrialist with a penchant for extreme security measures. He owns a network of private islands, ships, and planes. His use of 'The Ability' is unequaled by anyone he has ever met.
• Charles Colben, a director of the
  FBI
  with use of "The Ability".
• Nieman Trask, a user of "The Ability", an aide to a Senior Senator from Maine.
• Joseph Kepler, a user of "The Ability", a member of the
  FBI
  .
• Reverend Jimmy Wayne Sutter, an incredibly influential and successful televangelist who uses "The Ability" mainly to get obscenely rich.

The characters Saul and Natalie, learning about the actions of The Trio and The Island Club, observe that these people with immense psychic powers could be considered a type of vampire, as they feed off the energy of those they indirectly kill to gain youth and energy.

Plot summary

The story begins in 1942, with a man named Saul Laski who fears for his life while at the Chełmno extermination camp built by Germans during World War II in Poland. He is determined to resist being taken away in the night but something supernatural compels him to obey the orders of the Schutzstaffel.

It continues in 1980 with a meeting of Melanie, Nina, and Willi in Charleston, South Carolina. They discuss a game that involves using an innate power they have, which they call an Ability, to take remote control of people simply through thought and cause them to do anything. When these people are controlled to murder, it imparts those with the Ability to look and feel younger and more alive. As each member of the group presents their recent exploits, such as the murder of John Lennon, a tension and unease between them is revealed as a kind of truce. When Willi's plane explodes the next day, Melanie suspects Nina and then a fight ensues, with both characters using innocent bystanders as soldiers and victims in a bizarre series of brutal murders involving children, old men, and security guards until Nina is shot in the head and dies.

An investigation

There is a police and FBI investigation into a bizarre series of seemingly unconnected murders that span down a street on a single night as Sheriff Gentry and FBI Agent Haines interview a visiting psychologist named Saul Laski. Saul is famous for his theories about seemingly strange and impossible violence, but is as stumped as the sheriff. Later, Saul is compelled to break into the house where the murders started to investigate, and meets Natalie; who has come for the same reason; to find out why her father, a photographer used and murdered in the battle, has died so bizarrely. After realizing they are both looking for answers, Saul reveals to Natalie that he has a past with supernatural violence, having been used by someone with the Ability in

The Island Club

Sheriff Gentry, now the only one investigating the murders as the

The timelines of the story in 1940s Poland and Israel, and as well as The United States in the 1980s are framed within and often reference actual events being directly or indirectly manipulated by characters with 'The Ability':

• Chełmno extermination camp, Sobibor extermination camp, and the events at Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m.
• Nuremberg Trials
• The murder of John Lennon
• The
  Iranian Hostage Crisis
• The election of President Ronald Reagan
• The
  Reagan Assassination Attempt
• The actions of the
  PLO in the 1980s and Kibbutz
  building in Israel
• The estate of Willi and establishment of a
  National Park at Bayerisch Eisenstein
• Grumblethorpe, The Fuller House, and other historic houses on the National Register of Historic Places

References