"Law enforcement in Appaloosa had once been Virgil Cole and me. Now there was a chief of police and twelve policemen. Our third day back in town, the chief invited us to the office for a talk. The new chief is Amos Callico, a tall, fat man in a derby hat, wearing a star on his vest and a big pearl-handled Colt inside his coat. An ambitious man with his eye on the governorship--and perhaps the presidency--he wants Cole and Hitch on his side. But they...

Seventeen-year-old Lyla feels ambivalent when the charismatic leader of her isolated suburban community is told that the end of the world is near and when it arrives they must all be ready to defend themselves against the unchosen.

When their car breaks down, Dee, her boyfriend Luke, and his brother Mike walk through a winter storm to take refuge in a nearby deserted town called Purity Springs, but in the morning they see the town is populated with a deadly cult and find themselves at the mercy of the charismatic leader, Elijah Hawkins.

"A provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age"--

Profiles the lives and unusual teachings of six charismatic cult leaders: Mother Ann Lee, Father Divine, L. Ron Hubbard, Sun Myung Moon, Jim Jones, and David Koresh.

Lyla thought she was free from the survivalist Community, but it is hard to break the hold their leader Pioneer has even though he is in jail--and he is planning to use his powerful influence to get his revenge on Lyla and the town.