Hangman's Awakening — George O. Bancroft

Is Owen Stanley the quiet, loving teacher known to the staff and students of Warnell College, or the angel of death who confronts three armed men who come to the Saturday Evening student rally to execute the Lewis family? When Stanley uses the skills of a long-forgotten life to kill the three, he re-enters that dim, shadowy world of his former life that he had left forever when he dedicated his life to teaching. But the professor opposed a madman when he saved the Lewises, and it ends up costing him his family and his job, and leads him to Teri Hernandez - a woman from his past who he has never met, but who knows more about him than any other person on Earth. Owen and Teri are plunged into a life and death encounter with James Lacey, the elusive madman and priest of Satan, who ordered the Lewis family execution. Aided by Owen's best friend retired Marine Corps colonel Sean Andrews, techno-genius Ron Harrison, and the father of all hackers Josh Jacobs, the pair desperately press on through a quagmire of misdirection and chaos in search of the Lewises before Lacey can sacrifice their sixteen year old daughter to Satan during a cult ritual scheduled in three days. When they finally locate the Lewises in the Temple of Magick, they must pass through its tight security net and venture down five levels into its bowels to confront the “Followers of James” and save a lovely young woman from a terrible death at the hands of a madman.