When small-time televangelist Reverend Mo Johnston travels to Transylvania for a Halloween soul-saving and preaching marathon, he doesn't know how it will affect his ministry. He's in earnest about saving souls, but he's not above showmanship to increase his TV reach. Also recently divorced, he's constantly fighting against a rising lust he feels for his beautiful young producer, Alicia.

On the last night of his exhausting tour, he's attacked in his hotel room by a creature which bites him on the neck. Johnston invokes the name of Jesus and the creature flees, convincing the televangelist that he has fought Satan and won. Ever ready to exploit, Johnston makes Alicia grab the camera, creating "Hallelujah—Not Halloween," a special in which he dramatizes his struggle with Satan. Little does he realize how effective the show is, as love donations start pouring in.

In the meantime though, Johnston sickens and rapidly worsens. And lusts he had before his attack are now magnified until he cannot avoid them. Suddenly he develops an aversion to light. He's drawn to a strip club and a dancer named Denise. Even as his ministry grows without him, Johnston dips into his basest lusts and—finally—learns that he can bestow eternal life with his bite. But rather than see himself as evil, Johnston believes he's been blessed by God. For who else could give his flock eternal life?

What the TV preacher Mo Johnston learns about himself, about others, and about faith makes up the remainder of this enigmatic novel, which veers in tone from gothic to traditional, from erotic to religious, and from serious to sometimes bordering on the comic. There is a darkly comic vein, after all, in seeing a pick-up-driving televangelist turn into a vampire, not to mention when he reverts to his Marjoe Gortner-style youth and starts to quote "Stairway to Heaven," "Freebird," and "Spirit in the Sky" instead of the Bible.

Blending religion with horror can have miraculous results, as in Tom Monteleone's The Blood of the Lamb. Writer-journalist-teacher-musician-filmmaker John Wooley exploits his interest in multimedia and pop culture to sublime effect in portions of Awash in the Blood. Wooley is to be commended for not succumbing to the obvious and making Mo Johnston a monster—a two-faced insincere media whore—to begin with, though that side of him lies not so deeply under his skin. Making Johnston mostly earnest and self-righteous allows the author to examine his fall from grace with a bit more sympathy. And indeed, Johnston's initial resistance to his dark lusts makes him a tragic character, led into darkness not by his innate evil, but by his innate (if arrogant) belief in his own goodness. Though it's difficult to pick out his transformation back to who he was, it's done with enough conviction to work.

John Wooley crafts a unique examination of faith and TV religion, succeeding spectacularly much of the time. Strangely abrupt opening and ending aside, the author's straightforward prose tells the story in the most economic, effective way—from Johnston's skewed (but mostly honest) point of view. Though you'll wish it were longer, this is one of those novels whose imagery will stick with you long after the end.