When Ray Parker dies unexpectedly in Bethulia Park Hospital, his suspicious family launch a campaign for justice. They recruit the young and idealistic hospital chaplain Father Calvin Baines to find a beautiful nurse who might unmask the doctor they believe is guilty of murder. When Emerald Essien enters his life, the priest finds his high principles are put to the test in a way that drives him to the edge of despair as he is propelled into a dark world of sexual obsession, danger and death ...

“The Beast of Bethulia Park is a gripping psychological novel with Catholic themes but is also a wonderful thriller in its own right. Caldwell is an exciting new voice with a journalist's eye for crime detail and medical research. The priest belongs in the top literary gallery of priest protagonists who are all too human and find themselves up against clerical authority. A major new talent has arrived.”    William Cash

Simon Caldwell was born in Liverpool in 1968 and trained as a journalist on local newspapers in Lancashire in the early 1990s. He joined the Catholic Herald as associate editor in 1999 and the Daily Mail in 2001, spending more than a decade on the foreign desk. He lives in Lancashire and continues to work as a freelance journalist and media consultant.