Review and Giveaway: Medical Judgment by Richard Mabry

Just what the doctor ordered: heart-thumping suspense and intrigue, courtesy of Richard Mabry’s new medical drama, Medical Judgment. Someone is after Dr. Sarah Gordon. They’ve stalked her and set a fire at her home. Trying to recover from the traumatic deaths of her husband and infant daughter is tough enough, but she has no idea what will come next. As the threats on her life continue to escalate, so do the questions: Who is doing this? Why are they after her? And with her only help being unreliable suitors in competition with each other, whom can she really trust?

Join Richard in celebrating the release of Medical Judgment by entering to win an e-reader!

 

One grand prize winner will receive:

• A copy of Medical Judgment
• A Kindle Fire HD 6

Enter today by clicking the icon below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on June 21st. The winner will be announced June 22nd on the Litfuse blog.

My Review - Quality Medical Thriller

Medical Judgement is a standalone medical thriller, but the focus is definitely on the thriller side rather than the medical (which is good news for all those who turn away from the gory parts on TV shows like House).

Dr Sarah Gordon has recently lost her husband and daughter in a car accident, and is having trouble getting past the grief. She's woken one night by smoke in the house--someone has lit a pile of oily rags in her garage. It's more annoying than dangerous, but it's the start of a chain of events: someone is after her.

As with all good thrillers, we get an early insight into the mind of the perpetrator so we know what he's planning while Sarah--his intended victim--doesn't. What we don't know is his identity, which means the tension ramps up every time a new male character is introduced and we ask if this is the whacko. Sarah is an excellent character, weak at first but who gradually grows stronger as she decides she's going to get past her grief and not let this guy win.

There are some excellent supporting characters as well: Bill Larson, the recovering alchoholic detective with a broken marriage. Kyle Andrews, a friend of Sarah's husband who seems to want to get a little too close to Sarah. Steve Farber, Sarah's pastor and another recovering alcoholic.

And the plot made sense (thankfully. The last Richard Mabry novel I read left me feeling confused as to the identity and motive of the perpetrator), and I enjoyed the subtle Christian themes woven into the story.

Thanks to Abingdon Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can read the start of Medical Judgment below.

Review: A Cry from the Dust by Carrie Stuart Park

Recommended for Suspense Fans

Gwen Marcey is a forensic artist currently employed reconstructing three skulls, remnants of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah. An act of vandalism and a ritualistic murder land Gwen in the middle of a criminal investigation, and she doesn’t know who to trust: it’s Utah, the evidence points to a group of militant Mormons—it seems most local law enforcement officials are linked to the church—and no one believes Gwen.

A Cry from the Dust is a fascinating blend of fact and fiction. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, the murder of 120 men, women and children by members of the Mormon church, is a real historical event subject to a real-life cover-up. This makes it ideal as the basis for a suspenseful contemporary crime thriller, as the secrets from the past and the events of the present begin to intertwine in a fundamentalist conspiracy that could lead to another act of domestic terrorism on the anniversary of the Massacre: 11 September.

The plot is complex, with seemingly small events gradually growing in importance. Gwen is a fascinating character: a woman with an unusual and intriguing professional background combined with a difficult personal background (cancer, divorce and a rebellious teenage daughter) which means people think she’s got mental health issues. She’s intelligent and brave, my favourite kind of heroine.

There was one thing about the writing that was slightly ‘off’, although I was more than half way through the novel before I worked out what it was. Most of the story is written in first person, from Gwen’s viewpoint, but there are occasional short scenes in third person viewpoint, from minor characters. I’m not a fan of mixing first and third person viewpoints, and while I’ve seen it done better I’ve also seen a lot worse. This was the only glitch in an otherwise excellent novel, and I look forward to reading more from Carrie Stuart Parks.

Review: The Depths by Nick Thacker

Cool Concept!

Jennifer Adams is having a bad day. First she finds her boss, Dr Storm, dead in her car, then she gets a call from her estranged husband to say their son has been kidnapped by eco-terrorists. He doesn’t tell the police, but there’s a ransom note: they have four days to find “Dr Storm’s answer”.

What follows is a fast-paced thriller set in a self-contained biosphere five miles under the ocean (think the Eden Project meets The Abyss meets Stephen King’s The Dome). It’s supposed to be uninhabited, so where did that submarine come from? Who is the strange man in white? And how does this all relate to finding Dr Storm’s answer, and saving Reese?

Jennifer was a good character—intelligent and driven, but her family still came first. Mark, her husband, was a harder character to like at first, but he developed well as the story progressed, and I could see why he had been secretive at first. The plot was complex and detailed, with a very cool underlying concept, lots of twists and an ending that was reassuringly unpredictable.

There were a few typos, as well as some writing glitches (overuse of italics, and errors like a saluting a corporal). The “he thought” lines felt wrong (point of view tells us who’s thinking), although I did find I stopped noticing the errors as I got into the story and the pace increased. And increased, to the point it felt too fast. It was one action scene after another, with no down time between scenes to reflect on what was happening (something I felt was necessary both for me as the reader, and for the characters. People who act without thinking invariably make mistakes …).

The concept was great, the characters were interesting, and while The Depths isn’t Christian fiction, it was free from swearing, sex and graphic violence (there was a lot of violence, but it didn’t go in to unnecessary detail). Good, but could be improved.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Nick Thacker at his website.

Review: The Reign by Lynne Stringer

Gripping Finale

The Reign is the third and final book in the Verindon Trilogy, and it is best to read The Heir and The Crown first. In fact, if you haven’t read the first two and want to, you might be better going to my previous reviews to avoid spoilers.

Review: The Heir

Review: The Crown

All three stories follow Sarah, a teenage American girl who finds out she’s actually the heir to the throne on a far-off planet, and her best friend and teenage crush are actually aliens from her home planet, sent to Earth to guard and protect her (The Heir). Upon arriving on Verindon, she finds her life threatened by unknown forces, and learns she is required to marry but forbidden by law to marry the man she loves (The Crown).

The Reign begins with Sarah finally deciding which of her approved suitors she will marry, as her efforts to change the law have failed. Another attack on her life reveals information that will change everything—and place her in even more danger.

I’ve really enjoyed this debut YA series by Lynne Stringer. It’s not Christian fiction, but it is written from a Christian world view, so it doesn’t have any of the sex, violence or negativity so prevalent in contemporary YA fiction. The Reign pulls together all the plot points of the earlier books, and delivers a satisfying finale.

The books are all written from Sarah’s point of view, which has plusses and minuses. It was a strength in The Heir, because it meant the reader discovered the secrets of Sarah’s past as she did. I would have liked to have seen some alternate points of view in The Crown and especially The Reign, because both have strong male characters, and I would have liked to know what they were thinking!

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed this series and recommend it to fans of YA sci-fi.

Thanks to Wombat Books for providing a free book for review. You can find out more about Lynne Stringer at her website, or check out yesterday's interview. 

Review: Critical Condition by Richard L Mabry

Richard Mabry's latest medical suspense, Critical Condition, is receiving high praise. USA TODAY says, "Mabry combines his medical expertise with a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat."

Richard is celebrating the release with a Kindle HDX giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive:

• A Kindle Fire HDX
• Critical Condition by Richard Mabry

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on May 11th. Winner will be announced May 13th on Richard's blog.

Don't miss a moment of the fun; enter today and be sure to stop by Richard's blog on May 13th to see if you won.

About the book

Dr. Frasier couldn't save the gunshot victim on her front lawn. Now she's fighting for her own life.

It began as a quiet dinner party honoring Dr. Shannon Frasier's colleague, but became a nightmare when a man was shot on her lawn, reviving emotions from a similar episode a decade ago. Then a midnight call from her sister, Megan, causes Shannon to fear that her sister is on drugs again.

Her "almost-fiancé" Dr. Mark Gilbert's support only adds to Shannon's feelings of guilt, since she can't bring herself to fully commit to him. She turns for help to her pastor-father, only to learn that he's just been diagnosed with leukemia. Shannon thought it couldn't get any worse. Then the late-night, threatening phone calls begin, the rough voice asking, "What did he say before he died?"

With everything around her in a critical state, simply staying alive will require all the resources and focus Shannon has.

My Review

Critical Condition starts with a bag (literally) as Shannon Frasier witnesses the gunshot that kills her long-term boyfriend Todd Richardson. Ten years later, she’s a surgeon in a Dallas hospital and history almost repeats when a complete stranger is shot on her front lawn, and dies in her arms. Things grow rapidly more complicated when Megan, Shannon’s sister, moves in with her after having a fight with her boyfriend … who then dies. Both Megan and Shannon’s fingerprints are on the murder weapon, and the police seemed convinced that one or both of the women know more than they are saying. One of the policemen seems to be paying Shannon more attention than is necessary, which causes friction between her and almost-fiance Dr Mark Gilbert.

This is a complex plot, a combination of mystery, suspense, medical thriller and romance (although I did feel the romance was definitely last place). There were lots of related points to keep in mind, yet not so many that I lost track of who was who or what was what. Shannon and Megan were both well-drawn characters, with Shannon as the ‘good’ older sister who had worked hard and done well, and Megan the more flighty younger sibling with a more mixed personal history.

I did almost feel as though the plot lost momentum at one point, but the climax certainly got the adrenaline pumping, and all the loose ends were tied up by the last page. Recommended for thriller fans.

About the Author

A retired physician, Dr. Richard Mabry is the author of four critically acclaimed novels of medical suspense. His previous works have been finalists for the Carol Award and Romantic Times Reader's Choice Award, and have won the Selah Award. He is a past Vice-President of American Christian Fiction Writers and a member of the International Thriller Writers. He and his wife live in North Texas.

Review: Poison Town by Creston Mapes

Not for me

Poison Town is the second in The Crittendon Files, thrillers about Jack Crittendon, a newspaper reporter for the Trenton City Dispatch. He’s still coping with the aftermath of the events in Fear Has a Name, and struggling with forgiveness issues, which is causing issues between him and his wife. This is a significant subplot, so I think it’s best to read the stories in order.

Anyway, the main plot in Poison Town is a potential cover-up by Demler-Vargus, a fiberglass manufacturer and the major employer in Trenton. Jack hears that many of the long-time employees are having health issues, which are being hushed up, and a former Dispatch reporter who investigated the problem has disappeared. Is there something dangerous in the air around Demler-Vargus causing lung problems, or is it all just a coincidence?

I’ve no doubt Poison Town will appeal to some readers. But it didn’t appeal to me. The writing was good enough and the Christian elements were there, but I think—based on the advance endorsements—I was expecting something a little more like a John Grisham novel (or perhaps a fictional Erin Brockovich). But that wasn’t what I got. Instead, I found characters I found difficult to empathise with and a plot which seemed to meander along, waiting for something to happen. I’m sure many people will enjoy this, but I didn’t, and I doubt I’ll bother with future books in the series.

Thanks to David C Cook and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Creston Mapes at his website.

Review and Giveaway: Distortion by Terri Blackstock

Don't miss Terri Blackstock's latest release in the Moonlighters series, Distortion.

The book releases March 11th, and Terri will be kicking off the release with a fun Facebook Distortion party and giving away a Kindle Fire HDX. PLUS readers can pre-order the ebook for just $4.99 between now and 3/11 everywhere ebooks are sold.

One winner will receive:

• A brand new Kindle Fire HDX
• Distortion and Truth Stained Lies by Terri Blackstock

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on March 11th. Winner will be announced at the Distortion Facebook Party on March 11th. Connect with Terri for a "suspenseful" book launch party with prizes, a book chat, and more.

Don't miss a moment of the fun; RSVP today by clicking JOIN on the event page. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 11th!

My Review

Bob and Juliet Cole have just finished helping Holly, Juliet’s sister, move house when Bob is murdered as they return their U-Haul. It soon becomes apparent that this is more than a standard drive-by shooting, as Bob’s computer reveals a lot of information Juliet never knew about him and the investigation is handed over to the FBI.

Distortion is the sequel to Truth Stained Lies, which featured Cathy and Jay (Juliet’s sister and brother) working with Michael, a local PI, to solve the murder of Jay’s wife. Now Michael and Cathy are working with Juliet and Holly to find out the details of Bob’s secret life. However, it’s not necessary to have read Truth-Stained Lies before this, as Distortion works well as a standalone novel.

It’s a cross between a mystery and a thriller, in that the first half of the story is about finding the murderer and discovering Bob’s secrets, while the second half adds more suspense by introducing new viewpoint characters … and a link back to Truth Stained Lies. It’s well-written, tightly plotted with solid and interesting characters, and plenty of suspense. Recommended for suspense fans.

Thanks to Zondervan and Litfuse Publicity for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Terri Blackstock at her website.

Review: Lip Reading by Harry Kraus

Medical Thriller

Rebecca Jackson has dedicated her adult life to the discovery of synthetic blood, atonement for a teenage car accident that resulted in a small boy getting HIV after receiving a transfusion of contaminated blood. Her research takes a great leap forward after a trip to Africa, when she finds she can see problems in an entirely new way—although she has no idea why.

Noah Linebrink’s life purpose was determined in that same car accident. He’s now a researcher for a competing pharmaceutical company, and is tasked with poaching Becca to work with his firm. That means confronting their joint past, a task made more difficult by the threats they start getting.

The plot moves smoothly from Africa to corporate America, where Becca learns the reason behind her new ability to solve medical problems … and has to fight for the right to continue her research.

This isn’t the first novel to invent artificial blood for transfusions—that idea has been a staple of vampire novels for years. But it’s the first novel I’ve read which has gone into the scientific issues of such a project, as well as the costs and potential benefits. I didn’t necessarily understand all the science (much the same way as I never understood the technobabble in Star Trek: TNG), but that didn’t stop me enjoying it.

Lip Reading was well-written, with a detailed and engaging plot, interesting characters and a lot of interrelationships that only became apparent as the story progressed. Excellent suspense.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Harry Kraus at his website.

Review: No One to Trust by Lynette Eason

First in a new Romantic Suspense Series

Summer Abernathy is happily married to Kyle after a whirlwind romance. He’d never lie to her, or so she thinks until she wakes up with three strange men standing over her, asking for Kyle’s laptop. But Kyle has disappeared … Kyle is really David Hackett, part of the witness protection programme, and his past has just caught up to him.

Summer has just had her trust broken in the biggest way. She’s married a man whose whole life is a lie, and she has no idea how to cope with that. But that worry soon becomes secondary to a more important objective—staying alive when the people out to get them seem to know their every move.

Kyle/David has his own problems. He does love his wife: he didn’t just marry her to throw his enemies off his trail (as they’d be looking for a single man, not a married man with a mortgage). But now he has to try to stay alive long enough to convince Summer.

No One to Trust is a fast-paced thriller, full of unpredictable plot twists and curve balls. The pace means it’s probably lacking a little in character development, the Christian aspect is also secondary to the suspense, and the romance isn’t really there (as they are already married). However, No One to Trust is still an excellent read for fans of romantic suspense, and I’ll certainly be looking out for the next book in this new series.

Recommended for fans of Brandilyn Collins, Irene Hannon, Dee Henderson, Ronie Kendig, Diann Mills and Dani Pettrey. Thanks to Revell and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Lynette Eason at her website.

Indie Review: Angelguard by Ian Acheson

Speculative Thriller

Three bombs go off, in London, Los Angeles and Sydney. Thousands die, and no one claims responsibility. The forces of evil are working behinds the scenes, with a master plan to destroy the governments of the world and it’s up to the Angelguard to protect those who are vital to preventing the plan’s success.

Angelguard follows Jack Haines, an Australian who lost a wife and two children in the Sydney bomb, and Loren Summers, an executive who was caught in the LA bombing. They meet at INSEAD in France, where Jack is a guest lecturer and Loren is a participant on a two-week short course with her employer.

I found the first fifty pages hard reading, partly because of the subject nature (the bombings), but more because we were introduced to a large number of human and angelic characters—more than sixty—and it was hard to keep them all straight and know who was going to be important to the plot. There were also a lot of editing glitches, like rapid shifts in point of view, excess use of adverbs, inconsistent use of dashes and the incorrect capitalisation of INSEAD (it’s INSEAD, not Insead, at least according to their website). All this slowed down my reading and made it hard to engage with the story.

The novel improved dramatically after the first fifty pages, once the central plot started to emerge. It became a tightly-woven plot with lots of important characters and battles operating in the natural and the supernatural. The plot was good, the characters well-drawn and the Christian elements were clear and well-stated. The interplay between the angels and demons reminded me of Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness (although I have to admit it must be close to twenty years since I read them), and the novel contains some important spiritual truths which the author manages to bring out without being preachy.

Recommended for fans of speculative Christian fiction.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Ian Acheson at his website.

Review: The Church Builder by AL Sheilds

Religious Thriller that ticks all the boxes

Six months ago, Bethany Barclay’s best friend was murdered. Now Bethany comes home to find the body of her ex-boyfriend on her floor, her gun on the floor, and a strange symbol painted on the wall—a symbol that reminds her of something Annabelle said before she died. Are the two deaths related? Bethany believes so, but the police are convinced she’s responsible for Ken’s death. She goes on the run to try and find the link between the two murders, but things get harder when she’s implicated in a bombing as well.

It’s quickly apparent hat Bethany has been set up. It’s also apparent that there is more than one group of people after her. What isn’t immediately not clear is why. What does she know? And who can she trust? Her search leads her first to Chicago, The World Foundation for the Fulfilment of God’s Personal Plan and Martin Potus, another ex-boyfriend who is now leader of God’s Planners, a possible cult.

The Church Builder s the first novel in what promised to be an exciting series from AL Shields (better known as Stephen L Carter, Professor of Law at Yale). It’s tightly-plotted with two secret societies fighting for opposing sides in a religious battle, a range of ambiguous characters (it’s hard to tell who is good and who Bethany needs to be suspicious of) and a fast pace that sometimes makes it even more difficult to keep the characters straight—not to mention their loyalties.

The Church Builder isobeys several 'laws' of modern fiction with its distant POV, switching between past and present tense for no apparent reason and an over-reliance on telling (especially at the beginning), but somehow it works, for me at least (even though my mind says it shouldn’t). It’s the first book in a series, and while the central plot of this book was resolved, the ending also serves as the introduction to the central conflict in the next book.

Recommended for those who like fast-paced thrillers and don’t mind reading a serial.

Thanks to Zondervan and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: A Man Called Blessed by Ted Dekker

A suspenseful story hiding nuggets of spiritual wisdom

 

David Ben Solomon has dedicated his life to searching for the Ark of the Covenant in order to restore it to Jerusalem and welcome the Messiah. He has been joined in his quest by his daughter, Rebecca, an archaeologist and assassin. They Raphael Hadane, a Falasha Jew from Ethiopia, who tells them the information they seek is hidden in the Debra Damarro monastery in Ethiopia.

Caleb is twenty-five and has lived almost his whole life in the Debra Damarro monastery, first in the care of Father Matthew, now with his adoptive parents. He, apparently, holds the key to the location of the Ark. But not everyone wants the Ark found, and one man in particular is determined to stop Rebecca and Caleb …

A Man Called Blessed is the second in the Caleb Books series by Ted Dekker and Bill Bright. Dekker is famous for his suspense, and that came through in the novel. Bill Bright is famous for his non-fiction books on spiritual maturity, and that came through as well, with quotes such as these:

“You say that you may not be living up to your beliefs, but by definition, this is impossible. We always live up or down to our beliefs. Beliefs are the rails which govern our lives.”

and

“In reality, most people who call themselves Christians do not believe in Christ at all. Their train is not on his rails. They do not live what they say they believe, because in reality they don’t believe it.”

Thought-provoking.

What didn’t come through so well, for me, were likeable characters I could believe in and relate to. We didn’t see much of Caleb in the beginning, and it seemed as though he had a personality transplant when he arrived in the desert. It didn’t quite ring true. Equally, Rebecca seemed to morph from a military assassin into a stereotypical brash American tourist when she left the monastery. Neither transformation rang true to the characters as they had been established in this book (although the character of Caleb might have been consistent with the previous book, which I haven’t read).

And I had issues with the plot. Some aspects were incomprehensible (how to you build a crate around an object without ever touching said object?). Others felt contrived. Fiction uses a story to demonstrate truth. But one of the issues with fiction, especially Christian fiction, is that we don’t accept miracles in our novels, even though we know we serve a God of miracles. If you must have a miracle as a key plot point, that miracle must be foreshadowed—it must be signalled from the very beginning. It can’t just come out of nowhere. Otherwise it breaks one of the biggest ‘rules’ of fiction: the injunction against using deus ex machina to solve plot problems.

I also had issues with the writing, particularly the overuse of adverbs and exclamation marks, and the developing relationship between Rebecca and Caleb. I continually felt I was being told how they felt about each other—I never saw it.

On a more practical level, it was interesting to gain insight into the minds of the modern Jew and Muslim, especially Palestinian Muslims. There are serious problems in the Middle East, and A Man Called Blessed illustrated them well.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and Booksneeze® for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Dark Justice by Brandilyn Collins

More ‘Seatbelt Suspense’ from Brandilyn Collins

Hannah Shire and her mother, Carol Ballard, are returning from a weekend away when they come across a car accident. The sole victim, Morton, is injured, mentions his daughter and tells the ladies not to tell anyone—but not to tell them what? Later at home, Hannah finds a flash drive in her pocket, and surmises Morton must have put it there. Later that evening, two FBI agents visit and interview her—but are the really from the FBI? Who can they trust? What follows is a suspenseful chase as the two women, assisted by Hannah’s daughter, Emily, try and find the solution to the puzzle while evading the FBI and the police before the deadline Emily discovers encrypted in the flash drive.

Dark Justice flips back and forth between the action in February 2013 (told in the first person by Hannah) and a subsequent Select Committee Investigation into the events of February 2013. This both adds and removes suspense. It adds suspense because it shows that Hannah, Carol and Emily have been caught up in a major event, but I did feel it also took away from some of the suspense because of the very fact it was in the future.

The scenario presented in Dark Justice isn’t unique (Firestorm and Digital Winter each had a similar premise), but the approach is different. Hannah is an ordinary person. She’s a widow with an adult daughter, and is the primary caregiver for her mother, who suffers from dementia. On the face of things, there is nothing special about her. But she is hard-working, intelligent and brave, and those qualities come to light as the novel progresses. Carol is a sad and stubborn woman who reminds us of how dementia steals people from us, and Emily is an intelligent and useful addition to the plot.

B&H Publishing have announced their intention to withdraw from the Christian fiction market, which leaves authors like Brandilyn Collins without a publisher. I hope she finds one, because I really enjoy her books. On the other hand, B&H pulling out of the fiction market is good news for Kindle owners, because several of their new and recent releases are on sale for $2.99 or $3.99, so it’s a good opportunity to stock up for your summer reading (or winter reading, for those in the Northern Hemisphere).

Dark Justice is a very good read (although I personally preferred Double Blind), and not recommended for when you are alone in the house or have some pressing deadline that’s going to stop you reading right through to the end.

Thanks to B&H Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Brandilyn Collins at her website.

If you’d like to buy the book or Kindle edition, you can follow the links above to purchase at Amazon. Those Down Under can buy from Koorong (Australia) or Soul Inspirationz (New Zealand). Koorong also sells epub editions.

Review: The Disillusioned by DJ Williams

I wanted to like it, but …

Danny Armstrong resisted his ‘destiny’ as the pastor of the California megachurch planted by his famous father. His brother Sam also walked away from the church, and is building a rising career as a producer of up-and-coming musical talent. When their mother commits suicide, Danny and Sam find a portion of the estate has been left to a woman in Zambia, a complete stranger.

And if they don’t find her, the whole estate will go to the church. They need to find her and claim their inheritance, or the ambitious new pastor will make public information that will damage their father’s reputation. But Zambia holds its own perils …

Disillusioned was well-plotted, but the plotting was at the expense of characterisation. It seemed that characters were introduced to and discarded from the book as required by the plot, rather than showing the progression of one or two characters through a series of events to achieve a final victory.

The main characters in The Disillusioned were strong, but their portrayal was uneven, with the story switching focus from Danny to Sam as the story progressed. New characters kept being introduced, and some minor characters were ignored, making me feel there were too many characters. I got mixed up with who was who several times (although this may be related to the point of view—it was not always clear who the viewpoint character was, and there were many examples of confusing head-hopping).

And there were a range of other editing issues, including punctuation errors, typos, excessive adverbs, strange dialogue attributions and (most curiously) the constant use of “he thought to himself” to indicate interior monologue. Well, who else would he be thinking to? This is a Christian thriller, not some mind-reading paranormal romance. The Disillusioned had the potential to be a great story. But first Williams needs to learn the basics of point of view, and to hire a competent editor. Then, maybe, the story will be able to shine.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Derek Williams at his website.

Review: Critical Pursuit by Janice Cantiore

Police Office Brinna Caruso is a dog handler in Long Beach (it’s a strange name, but the character does tell us the origin of the name, which illustrates a lot about her relationship with her parents). Her passion is finding kidnapped children—because she once was a kidnap victim. But Brinna’s role is placed under review when an arrest goes wrong, a suspect ends up dead and her name is plastered all over the newspapers.

She is partnered with Detective Jack O’Reilly, coming back to work for the first time since his wife died a year ago. He can’t face homicide—he can barely face life—so he is put out on patrol with Brinna. They are both initially uncertain about their new partners, as their reputations have preceeded them, but they will have to work out how to work together.

The first couple of chapters of Critical Pursuit are a bit slow, but the pace soon picks up when the reader realises that Brinna’s kidnapper is back in Long Beach, and is searching for his next ‘Special Girl’ to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Brinna’s rescue. We can see what is going to happen, but Brinna, Jack and the rest of the police force are oblivious, as records show the culprit died ten years ago. They think the messages left for Brinna at crime scenes are from a copycat killer, or perhaps a local paedophile who knows about Brinna’s Wall of Slime… This was a really good technique, as it really ramped up the tension and made the second half of the book a real page-turner.

Critical Pursuit is Christian fiction, and while it’s more gritty than most, it still manages to convey the damage done to Brinna all those years ago without getting into detail, and I appreciated that. The characters were strong, the writing was excellent, and the Christian aspects of the story were handled well. Recommended for those who enjoy a good thriller. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what’s next in store for Brinna and Jack.

Critical Pursuit was first published by OakTara as The Kevlar Heart in 2007. Thanks to Tyndale House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Janice Cantore at her website.

Review: An Accidental Life by Pamela Binnings Ewen

Rebecca Downer Jacobs is about to be one of the first women admitted into partnership of her prominent New Orleans law firm. She’s happily married with an exciting career, when something happens that’s going to change everything. Meanwhile, Peter, her husband and senior district attorney, is in charge of a complex case with far-reaching legal consequences and moral implications for his Christian faith.

An Accidental Life is billed as the story of a legal case regarding the right to life of a baby accidentally born alive after a late-term abortion (the author calls this America’s best-kept secret). It’s set in 1982, just nine years after the landmark case of Roe vs. Wade legalised abortion, and the tension surrounding the case and the time setting are strengths of the novel.

The weakness is that it takes too long to get going. The prologue and first chapter are, I’m sorry to say, boring. They are little more than five years of backstory, explaining what has happened to Amalise and Rebecca since the conclusion of Chasing the Wind (which was a rare five-star read for me). This backstory is unnecessary, as An Accidental Life works well as a stand-alone story.

An Accidental Life might have been stronger if it focused more on the case and less on the challenges Rebecca and Amalise faced as female lawyers in the early 1980’s. It isn’t that I’m unsympathetic to their challenges—I’m fascinated by them, as it’s women like this in real life that paved the way for women like me to combine work and family. I suspect An Accidental Life was trying to do too much. And it’s possible this is more the fault of the publisher than the author—B&H announced earlier this year that they are withdrawing from the fiction market. It could well be that the author didn’t get the editorial support the novel required.

Despite these problems, An Accidental Life is a solid read. The characters are faced with difficult yet realistic choices, the plot is certainly original, and the Christian element, while present, wasn’t overbearing. And although the last third of the novel—the legal case— was outstanding, the excellent premise didn’t quite deliver as a whole novel.

Thanks to B&H Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Pamela Binnings Ewen at her website.

Review: Raider's Vendetta by Karen Armpriester

Charley (a strong Christian woman) is the victim of a bank robbery gone wrong, and finds herself offering herself as a hostage to ensure the safety of the other victims. She forms a relationship of sorts with Raider (who she names based on the logo on the cap he wears). Charley allows Raider to take her as a hostage, at which point the book takes on more of a speculative nature, while still being grounded in the real world.

Charley is a great character. She’s older (her age isn’t given, but she’s had over thirty years of marriage, so must be around sixty). She’s a Christian with a strong personal faith, but one that has been challenged and grown through hardship—something Raider doesn’t understand, and he taunts her for her faith. But Charley’s not afraid to take it. She’s the antithesis of many heroines in Christian fiction—she’s got guts, has a wicked sense of humour, calls a spade a spade, and isn’t afraid to stand up for herself. I really liked her.

Raider has his own history, including the abusive Aunt Rose, who used to lock him in the vegetable box and make him pray for forgiveness. Aunt Rose is the primary reason why Raider doesn’t have any time for God, or for old ladies who pray. It’s quite easy to feel sympathy for Raider, and that’s important: few authors can write a convincing sympathetic villain.

Raider's Vendetta has a number of editing issues, including point of view violations, tense shifts, run on sentences, redundancy, thinker attributions, incorrect grammar and a relatively unsophisticated writing style. It has been proofread well, but would benefit from thorough copyediting. But the story was interesting enough that while I could see the editing problems, I was able to ignore them, and that doesn’t often happen.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Fear Has A Name by Creston Mapes

Jack Crittendon’s family has been targeted. An unknown man breaks into their house but steals only some jewellery and a Bible. His wife is almost run off the road by an unknown assailant, and he is accused of possessing child pornography. At the same time, he is investigating the disappearance and possible suicide of a local pastor, Evan McDaniel, whose wife is convinced he is still alive, even though his colleagues appear equally convinced he isn’t. Jack slowly uncovers information that suggests things were not as they first appeared. What follows is a fast-paced action novel as Jack tries to protect his family and solve the mystery of the pastor’s disappearance.

I found Fear Has a Name difficult to get in to. There was a lot happening, and I didn’t find Pam Crittendon to be a compelling character. That might be a little unfair, as she’d just been the victim of a home invasion, so we were seeing her at her worst, but I found her difficult to like or even to empathise with. Jack wasn’t much better, because he seemed to be back and forth between the McDaniel investigation and his own family problems. It seemed that he was the only person investigating the pastor’s disappearance, and while the plotting was solid, it didn’t strike me as realistic that people would give all this information to a reporter rather than the police, and I felt there were times when the McDaniel subplot detracted from the main plot.

However, things improved dramatically around a quarter of the way when we began to get the point of view of the stalker. I’ve read advice to novelists that the antagonist should have a motive, something in his personal history that makes him act the way he does. I read too many novels where the author has taken this advice but it feels to me, as a reader, as though that history has just been tacked on the end and feels more like an excuse than a motivation.

Fear Has a Name was different. By giving us the point of view of the stalker, Mapes has managed to integrate his personal history and give me a real sense of compassion for him, to see him as a real person (albeit one with a difficult background and an inappropriate way of acting on his feelings). This is a real strength in his writing, as is his seamless integration of Christianity. This is Christian fiction, complete with sermons, prayers and a gospel message, but it manages to achieve all this without coming across as preachy.

Fear Has a Name is full of flawed characters who have something in their personal history that causes them to act the way they do, from the stalker to Evan McDaniel to Margaret, Pam’s neurotic mother. Once we see and understand the circumstances that made the people who they are, we are better able to relate and empathise with them, whether they are the ‘goodies’ or not. Recommended. Just not if you’re alone in the house.

Thanks to David C Cook and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Creston Mapes at his website.
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Review: An Open Heart by Harry Kraus

Moving from comfortable Virginia to Kenya to begin the nation’s first heart surgery programme sounds like a noble objective, but Dr Jace Rawlings is running away. He’s running away from a broken marriage, a possible affair and memory loss, and returning to the town where he grew up as a missionary kid, working at the hospital where his Dad was a doctor, and where he lost his faith and his twin sister.

But this is Africa, and there are challenges in getting the programme started, not least in getting the equipment through customs. And once Jace undertakes the first operation, he finds a strange after-effect: his patient is giving him messages from beyond this dimension. And that’s not his only problem. Someone is out to end the heart surgery programme, and it looks as though he might be implicated in a death back in the US.

I’ve read and enjoyed novels set in Africa and other exotic locations (particularly those by J M Windle). I’ve read and enjoyed medical dramas (by authors such as Candace Calvert and Hannah Alexander). I’ve read and enjoyed novels with a supernatural element (like The Widow of Saunders Creek or Illusion). And I’ve read and enjoyed several of Kraus’s previous books (including the Claire McCall series), so I thought I would enjoy this. I did, but not as much as I expected.

The opening of An Open Heart was excellent, as Jace found himself thrown in jail, then refusing to pay the bribes to release his medical equipment. But as I progressed, it felt as though the novel was trying to be a supernatural thriller (with supernatural messages and a witch doctor), a medical thriller (the surgery) and a suspense novel (who wants to end the heart programme and why, the US element and the back story about Jace’s twin sister) all at the same time. It was too much, and I’m not sure it worked.

But my big problem was Jace’s faith. While I could understand why he turned away from Christianity as a child, I didn’t see why he essentially faked faith throughout his adult life. He married another missionary kid, a strong Christian woman; he went to church, then he goes back to Africa to serve in a missionary hospital, yet he has no personal faith. (SPOILER: He then has a major change of heart at the end of the story, yet it came out of nowhere. It seemed convenient rather than heartfelt).

And there were times when An Open Heart was let down by the writing. I found that the technical dialogue that comes across quickly in a TV medical drama doesn’t work so well on the page. It sounded authentic, but it read like a foreign language. There were too many points of view, odd changes of tense, and some of the scenes had a repetitious sentence structure (like starting consecutive paragraphs with adverbs). And there’s a spelling mistake in the Amazon blurb (it’s maelstrom, not maeltsrom), which isn’t good.

Overall, An Open Heart could have been great, but it wasn’t.

Thanks to David C Cook and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Harry Kraus at his website.

Indie Review: Dead Man's Journey by Phillip Cook

Aaron decides to investigate when father goes missing during his daily run and is found, dead, twenty kilometres away from home—and missing a finger. The investigation leads him to suspect a link between his father’s death and the mysterious ‘vanishings’ of homeless men in Brisbane.

His investigation also leads him back to Mackenzie, his childhood best friend and the girl he left behind. He knows what Mackenzie believes about what happens when we die. She’s a Christian. He isn’t. But when Mackenzie vanishes, Aaron finds himself re-evaluating his beliefs about life and death, angels and demons—and God.

The story is a Christian thriller with a speculative/science fiction backdrop and a hint of romance. It is set in and around Brisbane, Australia, in the near future, has a well-constructed plot and a host of interesting characters (I particularly liked the group of homeless men for their humour). It’s an exciting story that kept me thinking ‘what’s going to happen next?’, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Dead Man's Journey is Phillip Cook’s debut novel, and I will look forward to reading more of his work (and not just because I edited this. I really enjoyed it). Recommended for those who like Christian Speculative fiction by authors such as Frank Peretti or Alton Gansky, and for anyone who wants to support Australasian authors.