"What if" something else happened at the same time?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 1, 2023

Have you learned something happened and wondered "What if" something else happened at the same time? If you read the Ministers Of The Mystery Series, you might have begun to wonder more "what ifs" about a lot of other things.

13th Minister Of Salem Reviews

The question for me began when I was growing up near Salem. I can't tell you how many days I was there considering I lived in a city right next to it. I remembered going to the tourist area where the city blended the terrible history of the witchcraft trials with entertainment. Everywhere you look something terrible was turned into something profitable.

I would get sick to my stomach seeing families lining up to put their heads and hands in the stalks, smiling and laughing while someone took their picture. I always wondered if they thought about what the people of Salem endured that was behind what the tourists were enjoying? Did they ever think about them?

The Salem Witch Trials Memorial: Finding Humanity in Tragedy is a fabulous article to read.

Salem’s witch trials were the largest and deadliest in North American history. Over the course of a year and a half, nineteen people were hanged and one man was brutally tortured to death. Though popularly referred to as “the Salem witch trials,” accusations had spread throughout Essex County and beyond. In total, between 150 and 200 people were imprisoned, ranging in age from four to eighty-one years old. At least five died in jail, including the infant daughter of convicted Sarah Good.

None of the accused were “witches,” defined in the seventeenth century as one who had sold their soul to the devil. Instead, it was a crime often lodged against social outsiders within a community.

Had any of them been what they were accused of, there is no way in hell they would have allowed themselves to be captured and tortured, but that never dawned on the pious crowd screaming for their death. The amazing thing is, the only way to prove the accused were witches was if they survived attempts to kill them. Yet again, it never dawned on the mob that those they put to death must have in fact been innocent since they died. What if they noticed that fact?

What if the church folk claiming to follow Christ, making them Christians actually followed what He taught instead of what they wanted to do? What if they followed the scriptures instead of preachers spewing hatred and contempt? After all, they all had Bibles in their hands and could have read the holy words by themselves so they'd know what was in the pages they would never hear uttered in church.

Today it is almost as if those dark days have returned to haunt all of us. Some people claim their religious freedom is being attacked because they do not want others to have the same freedom to disagree with what they believe. Imagine that! If they want to be free to choose for themselves that would require all people to have that same right, but again, those seeking to control others, never see that simple fact.

If you have PTSD have you ever wondered "What if," something happened at the same time the life-changing event happened to you? What if someone was trying to prevent it? What if that voice in your head heard words from the supernatural world trying to warn you? What if after you survived there were more voices competing for your attention from that world only this time, the voices came from God and Satan at the same time?

The 13th Minister Of Salem is not about those standing in judgment during the witch trials. It is about a secret society trying to prevent evil from taking over again. It is about defeating evil by doing good and opening the eyes, hearts, and minds of people being tortured by the actions of others. It is about the horror of the events that cause #PTSD within us and the empowerment friends offer us by helping us.

All of the characters are survivors from different causes but the thing is, as they struggle to help the protagonist heal, more traumatic events find them just as their battles are coming to a head. Will they find victory over evil or will they fail to see the prophecy come true?

K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite ***** Penned by Kathie Costos, 13th Minister Of Salem is a work in the supernatural horror, suspense, and gothic drama subgenres, forming the third installment in the Ministers Of The Mystery series. It is best suited to mature adult readers owing to its dark content and adult situations. In this profoundly intriguing continuation of the series, we find ourselves back with Chris as word of his achievements and talents has spread, but this only leads to more trouble for our hero. Trying to get married would be hard enough without the constant death threats from the cult of the now-defeated Haman Cain, let alone the Master’s warning that his end-time is drawing near.

Kathie Costos brings us back into the world of gothic suspense, deep drama, and a chilling thriller with a bang in this third installment in the series. I found myself deeply involved in Chris’s psychological storyline. We see the painfully realistic damage that his adventures, battles, and triumphs have left him with over the events of the first two novels. I felt his pain, isolation, and pressure deep in my soul; such is the efficacy of Costos’s intimate narrative, thought, and speech portrayal. The darkest elements of the work are also well-handled to avoid being gratuitous but remain chilling to the core. I recommend 13th Minister Of Salem to fans of the existing series as another accomplished paranormal chiller to devour.