At 13, Alice, Roxanne and Del are close friends living in Cincinnati and experimenting in satanic witchcraft. Roxanne, being the instigator, is performing a ritual using Alice, a virgin. She's promised the other girls that the satanic spell will attract guys just for them. Alice appears dead and scares both Roxanne and Del away. Everything returns to normal in the following days, as if nothing has happened. The girls believe that the handsome young priest, Romero, is the "guy" produced from the spell. Roxanne seduces him and then finds she needs a secret abortion. The three girls lie to conspire against Romero, bringing him to ruin and exiled by the church.

Fifteen years later, Alice is married and rich but cannot have the one thing she longs for...a child. Roxanne is an artist and sculpts clay. Del is married and has a young stepdaughter she dearly loves. Romero has not forgotten his degradation, and his revenge on the women is being handled by Varrick, the devil himself. The devil appears to each woman as a handsome stranger with strange sexual appetites and disrupts their lives in an effort to torture and dispose of them. Bloodthirsty and involving the innocence surrounding the three women, Varrick has agreed to trade his services for Romero's soul.

Laura Benedict is a talented writer and very good with words. She has a way of putting you in the middle of a scene and making it seem quite real. CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS is a dark, disturbing story with many strange and highly sexual scenes. For me, it was a bit difficult to follow, but it's a compelling read for those who like innuendos, flashbacks and a complex storyline.