This Present Darkness — Frank E. Peretti

In THIS PRESENT DARKNESS, something is wrong in Ashton, a small college town where nothing much ever seems to happen. Nothing, that is, until Bernice Krueger, a persistent investigative reporter, is thrown in jail after photographing the poice chief in a clandestine meeting behind a carnival booth.

Bernice knows she's stumbled across something far bigger than a mere political scandal when she compares notes with Hank Busche, pastor of the Ashton Community church. A suspicious suicide, a rash of New Age courses at the college, a mysterious power broker from New York, and a desperate young woman on the run all converge in a frighteningly malevolent threat to the town -- and to the entire human race.