The Oath

John Mort

A wildlife biologist named Steve Benson has come to the remote mountain town of Hyde River to investigate the gruesome death of his brother. Benson tracks down and kills a grizzly, but then more people are killed and the bears are exonerated. Benson begins to listen with seriousness to the ravings of an old hermit who says that there's a dragon who lives in Saddlehorse Mountain and who lives on sin. It seems that in the 1880s, when Hyde River was a booming mining town, a fire-and-brimstone preacher was hanged, and the perpetrators then signed an oath embracing Reason as their god. In more than 100 years, their sins have grown into a monster. Steve tracks the chimerical dragon, which toys with him and lets him go. Steve is the embodiment of reason but feels the weight of sin when he begins an affair with a married woman, a local deputy named Tracy. A red mark appears over his heart, and gradually it begins to ooze black slime. Judgment Day arrives, and the dragon comes to claim its own. Steve, at last a believer, stands alone to do battle, rather like Bilbo Baggins of "The Hobbit", except that Peretti writes with a grim fervor rather than playfulness. Largely because of the success of "This Present Darkness" (1987), Peretti's name inspires awe in the religious publishing world; "The Oath" is so heavily anticipated that its prepublication sales placed it fifth on the Evangelical Christian best-seller list.

From Barnes & Noble

Although the sheriff has closed the case, Steve Benson does not believe his brother's death in the mountains is the work of a rogue bear. Teaming up with the sheriff's deputy, Steve sets out to investigate the killing and a series of strange incidents in Hyde River.