Set in and around Winston-Salem, North Carolina, ‘No Ordinary Fear of God’ is a black comedy/psychological thriller narrated by suicidal loner Cody Elletson (31) which tells the story of a roller-coaster weekend he spends in the company of an angry, deadbeat hitman named Dirk Black.

 

Only Dirk isn’t real, he’s a hallucination – a symptom of Elletson’s deranged mind (but Elletson and the reader don’t discover that Dirk is imaginary until the book’s climax).

 

The story takes place over the Easter weekend and depicts a downward spiral into mental dysfunction as Dirk plots a citywide killing spree. It falls to Elletson to try and talk Dirk out of throwing his life away and the lives of countless innocents; but as Elletson grows closer to Dirk and comes to rely on his manic companion to dig him out of trouble with the law, he soon finds himself getting dragged deeper into Dirk's crazy murder scheme.

 

The story opens as Elletson and Dirk flee the city in a stolen car, having been ejected from a strip club following an altercation with an exotic dancer. Elletson is injured in the fracas but it is Dirk who is left seething. Clutching his moose hunting rifle, he vows to take revenge on the city – gunning down the entire population one bullet at a time.

 

If dealing with Dirk isn’t hard enough, adding to Elletson’s woes is the recent discovery that he has a 13 year old daughter named Kitty. Her mother Nicole Stoley kept the secret from both father and daughter.

 

When Elletson tries to get close to Kitty she rejects him, triggering his meltdown. In desperation he abducts his long-lost daughter and takes her to an abandoned farmhouse to teach her the ‘right way to treat a person’.

 

When Elletson returns home he is met by his ex Nicole. She informs Elletson of their daughter’s disappearance and asks him if he knows anything – Elletson plays dumb but Nicole grows suspicious at the way Elletson acts around Dirk.

 

Central to Elletson’s life is local TV news anchor Christine Fisk. He is infatuated with Christine, sending her flowers and fan letters and goes to insane lengths to attract her attention. This is the real reason for the planned killing spree for although Elletson is trying   to talk Dirk out of the massacre that will take in the shopping mall and the church, really     it is all Elletson’s own idea - he wants Christine to be there reporting live as he takes one  final stand against losing his job, against his estranged daughter, but most of all against Christine’s rejection of him as a man.

 

Meanwhile Nicole goes to the police with her suspicions about Elletson but they refuse to  take her accusations seriously. Their attitude soon changes when they get a report  that Elletson was seen outside Kitty’s school that morning in possession of a stolen car which connects him to an ‘incident’ at a strip bar – a near riot sparked by Dirk in which Elletson  was injured.

 

On his return from the city, Elletson is dragged off in cuffs. The prospect of being left alone in the house with Elletson’s devoutly religious mother Eunice (who Elletson cynically refers to as Saint Eunice) terrifies hitman Dirk so he decides to tag along in the police car. After several hours of questioning, Elletson is released from police custody on bail.

 

He returns home to Eunice who tells him she knows something is up between him and Kitty. Elletson panics and tells Dirk they have no choice, they have to let Kitty go.

 

Back at the farmhouse the following morning, Dirk tries in vain to talk Elletson out of letting his daughter go. Once free, Kitty doesn’t run away, instead she and Elletson talk. He reveals why he abducted her and tells her that he, not Lonnie Stoley, is her father. He also tells her about Christine and the killing spree Dirk is plotting.

 

Kitty manages to talk Elletson out of joining in with Dirk’s killing spree. Dirk goes ballistic and flees the scene, but not before he vows to gun down everyone Elletson cares about, beginning with Christine Fisk. By now Elletson is frantic, desperate to get to Christine before Dirk.

 

Believing that the woman he loves is in imminent danger, Elletson risks all by returning to Winston-Salem to protect her. But just who is it that she needs protecting from? And where is Dirk?

 

Cody frantically combs the city for Dirk, who has it in mind to find and harm christeen. He tries missy bimbos and Christeens apartment, but no luck. At Christeen's pad he is warned by the complex manager about the restraining order placed on him by Christeen, this is the first we hear about any such restraining order. The apartment complex manager also has a thing for Christine, and he and cody vie for her affections.

 

Cody then chases Dirk through the streets. Suddenly Cody sees a tv report by Christeen Fisk. She is reporting on an anti war protest going through the city Cody loses Dirk in the crowd, then he hears more gunshots and thinks Dirk has started his planned gun toting rampage, killing Christeen in the process. Cody knows he can't get near Christeen without her recognizing him, so he holds up a costume store and makes his gataway dressed as a giant love heart, just as he's about to be arrested, the anti-gun rally marches by. Cody blends in with this crowd and makes his way towards christeen, who is reporting on the march for cable news.

 

Cody sees Dirk gunning for Christeen, he gets to her in time, dragging her away at gunpoint when she refuses to heed his warning about Dirk. Cody takes her to a rooftop. Dirk follows them up and a row ensues. Christeen questions Cody, saying, who are you talking to? A whole hour passes and by now it is twilight. The police stand-off is in full swing. Cody stands on the ledge with a firm hold of Christeen and threatens to jump unless the police marksmen take out Dirk. Eunice shows up, along with Nicole and Kitty (kitty has told her mom about what Lonnie was doing and he's been thrown out, a little good came of it then) Nicole tells Cody she forgives him for kidnapping Kitty and for the way he got her pregnant. Cody comes to realize that Dirk is a tough-talk phoney when Dirk shows fear at the thought of being gunned down by the police marksmen. This crack widens and Cody realizes Dirk is all mouth and no action. He lets Christeen go free and hands himself over to the police.

 

Cody is sitting in a police station in leg chains and the love heart costume. Sat beside him is his mother Eunice. She is talking about Cody's father, who until now has not been mentioned even once. Cody isn't in the mood to talk, or much in the mind to listen. He tells his mother to shut her trap, plus a few home truths about her old man. Dirk walks into the station house, packing heat, and accompanied by butter queenie. He tells Cody there's no hard fellings and he'll have Cody busted out in no time, to which Cody replies that he'd rather stay here a while, they promised me some help, y'know, for my head, the things I see. They say I shouldn't want to see them.

 

Dirk smiles and puts down his gun and says "Just maybe you're right about us, Cody."

 

It is only here sitting in the police station at the end of the book that we discover who Dirk really is – he is a hallucination of Elletson’s long dead father. The book ends on a high of sorts as Elletson, secured in leg-chains and dressed as an anti-war mascot, watches imaginary hitman Dirk making out on a police sergeant’s desk with imaginary motel prostitute Evie.

 

 

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