As the action of the book starts, children in Oregon City’s Followers of Christ Church had been dying mysteriously for years, and several more reportedly were facing blindness, disability and death.

His readers will enter the houses of faith healers who anoint cooking oil on their sick children rather than go to the hospital for an easy fix to prevent suffering and death. Dr. Larry Lewman, the chief medical examiner for Clackamas County, is credited as an early advocate for prosecuting faith healers in the 1990s, when it seemed that religious-protection laws handcuffed district attorneys from bringing justice to Followers.

"Most of those who run, and recruit to, British newspapers . . . claim they are colour-blind. But blindness is a disability. If you cannot see race you won't see racism; nor will you notice that the overwhelming majority of your staff is white."