Holy Terror by John R. Dougherty Book Tour, Guest Post & Giveaway! {Ends 11/25/22}
In The Holy Terror, Thumos, the greatest warrior of the Creator’s angelic army, the fiercest of all heavenly soldiers, has had enough of what he perceives to be a pattern of deference. He decides to take matters into his own hands. But the path he starts down is a path that other angels have traversed before. And many of them have ended up in the camp of the Evil One, the most destructive force the universe has ever known. Thumos comes face to face with Satan himself, and he have even more decisions to make.
Book Details:
Holy Terror by John R. Dougherty
Category: Adult Fiction (18+), 275 pages
Genre: Supernatural Mystery
Publisher: Self-Published
Release date: September 2022
Tour dates: Oct 31 to Nov 18, 2022
Content Rating: PG-13 +M – There is very little mild bad language, but there is a lot of somewhat graphic violence depicted.
Book Description:
The Miami police force is utterly baffled by the horrific crime scenes they are finding. The victims are being executed in unimaginable ways, and unlike most crimes perpetrated against humanity, these victims do not fit the usual murder victim profile. These victims are themselves criminals. In fact, some are very well-known criminals. But this scenario is not unique to Miami. Locales worldwide are seeing the same kind of maniacal homicides.
Who is responsible for carrying out these crimes, and how can they be stopped?
Two of Miami PD’s finest, Detectives Ian Jelani and Lane Madigan, are on the prowl, trying to solve these mysterious crimes. But they are being drawn into something far beyond their imaginations, something more than they have ever bargained for. These men may think they have seen it all, but that is quite the understatement. They are on a collision course with the most terrifying vigilante they have ever encountered. When their families become embroiled, the gloves come off, no holds are barred, and the rage of the vigilante spills onto them as well.
The forces of good and evil have waged war since long before Creation. Angels of heaven, both good and evil, have struggled to expand the borders of their kingdoms, and humankind has long been caught in the middle of that raging turf war. Men and women have faced the choices of good and evil since the Garden of Eden, and everyone knows where that original choice landed the rest of us. But humans are not the only ones tempted by the wares of evil. Angels have stared those same choices in the face too. Some have fallen away from the Creator, while some have remained faithful to Him. What of an angel caught betwixt good and evil, an angel who thinks he is serving his Master, but he is actually teetering on the edge of his own fall? What if that angel was the greatest warrior angel of all time, and decided to take it upon himself to rid the Earth of evil people? What might happen to those evil people who are trying to exert their malevolent power and intentions upon their fellow humans if such an angel was to go after them?
Goodreads ~ Amazon ~
Review By LAWonder10:
This is a very captivating story. It is nothing like I expected it to be. It is a little gory at times but very gripping. It involves various types of supernatural characters. It is part detective mystery and part otherworldly confrontations. It is a “page-turner” and keeps one guessing about the outcome.
This is a book of determination, judgment, defiance, self-examination, and retribution. It is very thought-provoking.
The characters are well-defined and events are portrayed vividly. The Title and Cover image are both chosen very well in depicting the contents of the book.
My personal opinion, in a large part, believes as the author portrays but not totally. However, it is a view worth examining. It is very imaginative.
I offer a Four and a Half Stars rating.
This book was gifted me with no pressure to post a positive review. This is my honest review.

Guest Post:

HOW I STARTED WRITING
As a teenager, I aspired to becoming the pastor of a church someday. I took copious notes of sermons I listened to at church (okay, yes, you could say I was a bit of an odd teenager ��), and by age 14-15 I was already writing my own future sermons that I was sure I would eventually be preaching. In fact, some of those very sermons I outlined as a teenager in my handy-dandy spiral notebook actually did become the basis for a few of the sermons I would eventually present from the pulpit throughout my 20s, 30s, and 40s. By the time I was 16-17, I was writing Bible book commentaries – somewhere hidden away in an old filing cabinet, I think I still have the few that I worked on.
When I was 20-year-old college sophomore, I preached my first pulpit sermon and unexpectedly even got paid for doing so – that was a pretty exciting prospect to a poor college student! That would set the stage for the next nearly 30 years of my life, as I would end up preaching close to a thousand sermons across over 30 different Churches of Christ, mostly small, rural congregations throughout Missouri. I never did this as a “full time gig”, but rather it was always an evenings and weekends job, while I maintained my professional information technology (IT) career as my day job. During that time, I wrote a large assortment of short articles for church bulletins, and frequently was graced with appreciation from church members of how much they enjoyed my writing. “You’re a good writer,” I actually did hear from people periodically.
However, it wasn’t until 1996 that I was originally inspired to tackle writing a novel (whoa, seriously, 1996 – that long ago – was the initial birth of the story of Thumos???). I worked on that in short spurts over a dozen years, never getting serious about it because too many other life activities consumed my time (you know, little things like marriage and raising 3 kids, working full-time, and those almost-every-weekend circuit-riding preaching outings!). Novel writing went dormant in the late 2000s and early 2010s, although I did attend a few how-to writing seminars, how to get published, reading a few articles on how to do it, thinking of new ideas to add to my novel, etc. Everything and everyone told me “writing is too hard, getting published is nigh to impossible, hardly anyone gets to do that, it’s a pipe dream” – and I listened to all that…for a while.
Then in the mid 2010’s, I got the bug again, and I really wanted to try to finish my first novel, Holy Terror. Maybe turning 50 was a trigger. Maybe my conversion to becoming a Catholic Christian was a trigger. Maybe that trigger will always be a mystery (but I do think God was nudging me all along on this long, drawn-out journey). In any case, by 2018, I actually completed it (well, hold on, I only thought it was complete ��). That’s when my nephew, Wes, who himself had recently been through the experience of writing and publishing a book (Eternal Effect Mortals by Wesley Salmons, 2015) told me “there’s a lady in Jacksonville, FL who helped me tremendously, and I sure wish I would have found her from the beginning of my book project – she is the reason I was able to finish it”. So, I contacted Melody Bussey (https://www.melodybussey.com/), we hit it off, and got started working with her in January 2019, quickly discovering my “finished” novel was not so finished, and I had a lot to learn about writing novels (that’s a whole other story, for another time). Then, as they say, “the rest is history”. Now it’s 2022, and Holy Terror is honest-to-God truly finished (although is a novel really ever finished???) and is finally going into print. Who’d a thunk it???
Meet the Author:
John has spent his professional career working in information technology by day and dabbling in a variety of other diversions by nights and weekends, including a few decades of serving in lay ministry. While serving in this capacity he preached hundreds of sermons, taught countless Bible study classes, and wrote dozens of inspirational articles.
He enjoys golf, guitars, grandchildren, and all things Kansas City – the Chiefs, the Royals, Sporting KC, KC Symphony, and KC Broadway, to name a few. He thinks (if not for his long-lost metabolism of youth) he could eat the famous Kansas City barbecue every day…maybe not for breakfast, but lunch and dinner for sure!
Now he is enjoying bringing to life his angelic hero, Thumos, and a host of other characters that he hopes you will find both entertaining as well as either inspiring or repulsive (after all, there are both good guys and bad guys in this story). This is the first book of a series, featuring detectives Lane Madigan and Ian Jelani, whose experience with Thumos will yield life changing results. And if you happen to be interested in such things, happy Bible Easter Egg hunting while you read, since many are planted throughout the book.
Connect with the author: website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ instagram
The Tour Schedule:
Oct 31 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Nov 1 – Rockin’ Book Reviews – book review / guest post / giveaway
Nov 2 –Locks, Hooks and Books – book review / giveaway
Nov 3 – fundinmental – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 4 – Liese’s Blog – book spotlight
Nov 7 – Books for Books – book spotlight
Nov 8 – Book Reviews by Taylor – book review / giveaway
Nov 9 – Mysweetenedlifebychix – book spotlight
Nov 10 – Leels Loves Books – book review / giveaway
Nov 14 – @onecreativeartist – book review
Nov 15 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Nov 17– Stephanie Jane – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Nov 18 – Literary Flits – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Nov 18 – Bigreadersite – book review / giveaway

Giveaway Details:
Win a signed copy of HOLY TERROR, plus $50 PayPal cash prize. (one winner) (USA only) (ends Nov 25)
To Enter the Giveaway click on the Rafflecopter link below:

This sounds like such a good book, the cover looks amazing!
I enjoyed reading about how you got started writing, very interesting and Holy Terror sounds like a book that will get the adrenaline pumping and shivers flowing! Thanks for sharing it with me!
Thanks, LAWonders10 for sharing your review!
Have a marvelous weekend!
This sounds like a great book! Great review! Added to my tbr!
Thank you for sharing your awesome review of Holy Terror, the author’s guest post and book details, this book is a definite must read for me
Hi, Bea,
It was well-deserved.
I appreciate the opportunity.
Lu Ann
Sounds very interesting.
Thank you so much for the wonderful review, much appreciated – God’s blessings be with you!
John, It is well deserved!
Lu ANn