hopeofglory

• Rated 5 stars

“less than DEad . . . is very much alive.

When the CFBA tour offers a menu with one of Tim Downs’ new releases on it, I am so there. Especially when it’s a new Bug Man novel. I admit the third entry in this series, First the Dead, was my least favorite and I reviewed it as such. Dr. Nick Polchak, forensic entomologist and professor at NC State, is one of the most intriguing and unusual characters in all of literature, and in less than DEad he is back to himself: clever, sardonic, and ready to do anything to solve the current investigation under the leadership of his former associate and friend, FBI Special Agent Nathan Donovan. Readers of Tim Downs’ books will recognize Special Agent Donovan from the only “real” Christian novel Tim has written: the wonderful, touching story Plague Maker.

Reunited on this case with forensic anthropologist Kegan Alexander, the two are assigned to a plot of land in Virginia owned by a U.S. senator running for president. Destined to become a massive shopping mall near the insignificant town of Endor where the senator’s wife began her life, the excavation has turned up what appears to be a graveyard. And not just any graveyard, perhaps the chosen place of body disposals for a serial killer. When Nick isn’t getting the answers he wants, he makes an unscheduled visit to the senator’s estate, “Bradenton”, to discuss their family history with them. Before long, Special Agent Donovan is replaced by a gung-ho, by-the-book replacement who has little patience with Nick’s inability to abide by his rules.

When an appointed woman and her cadaver dog seem unable to find their own shadows, Nick grows impatient and learns from the local deputy guarding the site that there is another woman known as the Witch of Endor who speaks to animals and finds dead bodies with her three-legged dog. This information is all Nick needs to spark his interest and fuel his impatience with the success-less duo assigned to “helping” them unearth more bodies.

Enter one more of the most intriguing and unusual characters in all of literature: Alena Savard, the Witch of Endor, mysterious dog trainer extraordinaire and mountain recluse. When Nick trespasses on her property, he finds out just how well and how necessary her ability to control the dogs in her care applies to him. It’s classic Tim Downs’/Nick Polchak wit, and the encounter is irresistible.

Moreso than any of the other Bug Man novels, this story uses a caring pastor as a peripheral character to “demonstrate” the love of God which is sure not to offend secular readers—a concern Tim seems to carry into most of his work, the exception being Plague Maker. The pastor character is helpful, thoughtful, a guardian of the “witch”, and a wise assessor of Nick’s heart and need.

That’s all I’m going to reveal of the plot because it’s too much fun to discover it on your own. However, I would like to give you just a taste of some of Tim’s writing to whet your appetite for this book even more:

Nick got up from his knees and dusted them off; he was almost even with the woman’s waist now and the view was not improving. Twenty yards to his right he spotted a large black-and-tan dog darting back and forth, nervously sniffing at the ground. The dog was wearing a hunter-orange vest exactly like the woman’s.
“Is that a cadaver dog?” Nick asked.
“That is a forensic detection dog,” she corrected, “and I’m afraid your scent is distracting.”
“The label said I’d be irresistible. I’m getting my money back.”
Still no response.
It was quickly becoming apparent that the woman lacked a sense of humor—a human personality defect that Nick found particularly annoying. He hoisted himself out of the hole and stood up beside her. She was even taller than she appeared to be from below, flat-chested, and thin as a vine. She lifted the front of the mosquito netting and pulled it back over her head, exposing her face. You may now kiss the bride was the thought that flashed through Nick’s mind—and it was not a pleasant thought. Her face matched the rest of her: It was long and thin with high cheekbones that ran down into sinewy sunken hollows like wax dripping over a ledge. Her hair was pulled back from her face in a bundle of tight curls of black and gray, and her dark eyes seemed to be frozen in a permanent glare—and right now they were glaring back at Nick

If I have one complaint, it’s the cover. It’s not the color or even the design—it’s that it makes no sense to the story. If that’s supposed to be Nick and Trygg, the novel’s description of Trygg clearly doesn’t match the four-legged black lab on the cover.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of Tim Downs’ writing, you won’t be disappointed. If you’ve yet to sample a Bug Man novel, I would suggest reading the first two Shoofly Pie and Chop Shop to get the full meal deal, but if you insist on being in the present, less than DEad is a terrific novel and a great place to dine at the Bug Man’s table. I hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of either Nick or Alena.
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hopeofglory wrote this review Tuesday, October 21 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“After The Pawn . . .The Rook

FBI geospatial genius and elite serial crime solver Dr. Patrick Bowers is called to San Diego to investigate a peculiar series of arsons. Glad to be reunited with the attractive Agent Lien-hua Jiang, the profiler on the case, and awaiting friend, Agent Ralph Hawkins, the agents quickly determine these fires are not the norm for typical arsonists.

Accompanying Agent Bowers on what he thinks will be a brief and relatively safe week of work is his 17-going-on-30 year old step-daughter Tessa. A bizarre and frightening incident occurs to Patrick and Tessa as they attempt to share an evening together. Alarmingly intuitive, paradoxical Tessa manages to contribute a few insightful observations to the case before completely acting her age and inserting herself into horrible danger.

Accomplished storyteller Steven James’ gives us The Rook which follows The Pawn, and coming in the summer of 2009 will be The Knight. Both The Pawn and The Rook leave us with an enticing cliffhanger, but each novel can be read with a sense of completion for the individual plots addressed. We know we will ultimately see one antagonist again, but there are several others to be concerned about—and eliminated—in the process of these stories without focusing on future dangers which of course are intimated.

If you read my review of The Pawn, you will remember I enjoyed the book. There is no question Steven James can write a suspense-filled thriller, palpably describing the evil in his multiple antagonists from primarily Patrick Bowers’ first person POV. However, in The Pawn I thought the plot was a bit too ambitious, dividing my interests in the bad guys and making me feel like I had to abandon one part of the story to keep up with the other two. Now that doesn’t mean anyone else felt that way, but I felt it strongly enough to make the point. The Rook is tightly focused, intense, employing a fair amount of bad guys but this time it’s easy to follow how they’re all connected, even when we’re unsure of whom the head and tail are and what exactly motivates them besides a strange device.

Inside The Rook we learn of a rare condition which “afflicts” one of the villains and when we get inside his head for a dream—well, if that doesn’t register a maximum surge on your “creeped-out-meter”, you don’t have one.

Patrick Bowers struggles with evil, not only in the heinous crimes and criminals who inflict them upon others, but within himself. While the theme exposes the God-based revelation that we are innately evil and need redemption outside of ourselves, so far in this series Steven has yet to make it clear if it’s possible or how it can be attained. In other words this is yet another Christian novel which approaches God and His offered salvation from a distance. Patrick Bowers and the ensemble cast of characters rely upon their talents and training, intelligence and intuition and expect the combination of these factors to ultimately work in their favor. When their most desperate efforts fail to secure their safety, it occurs to them to pray to the God none of them are sure is there.

Only a couple of minor plot concerns, one of which really can’t be faulted because of “real” time occurrences. In Chapter 55, page 246, Patrick answers a deceased character’s cell phone. At the end of a brief effort to fake the decedent's voice, the caller addresses Dr. Bowers by his real name. We know that Patrick is capable of dissecting and compartmentalizing intricate information, but this surprise isn’t even referred to again until Chapter 62, page 272. The only other incident which I felt might carry more weight in the story was when Patrick was informed about the sighting of a previous enemy. Overall, in light of this particular story and events and the intense pacing, these are not huge.

There was a hint of a spiritual softening in Patrick Bowers at the end of The Pawn due primarily to arriving at the end of his rope and natural abilities to save his kidnapped step-daughter and in remembrance of his deceased wife’s faith. Apparently it’s going to take more than a few near death experiences before Patrick takes real faith seriously. And that is my one and only disappointment in the novel.

An intriguing, good length, thrilling tale which took the next step in outdoing The Pawn. This series would make good films.
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hopeofglory wrote this review Monday, September 15 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Wounded (in so many ways) . . . a love story.

If you haven’t read a novel by Claudia Mair Burney, you need to do so. Not: you should or you ought to. You need to. This woman can write. Her voice stands out in a crowd. Unique. Real. Quaint. Strong. Wicked. Good.

“Stigmata” is a term which is most familiar to Catholics in reference to the supernatural appearance of the crucifixion wounds of Christ appearing on humans. One would assume a novel written around this topic might be filled with monks and nuns and monasteries, taking place in ancient Italy. Not in present day Michigan at a Vineyard Church.

Regina (Gina) Dolores Merritt, whose name means “Queen of sorrows”, is a single mother of a five year old named Zoe who attends the Vineyard church whenever her fibromyalgia and chronic pain disorder allows. On Ash Wednesday after Pastor Mike pats some ashes on her head in the sign of the cross, she treks up to the balcony to get lost in Jesus. Behind her in line, Anthony Priest, once a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, now heroin junkie extraordinaire, receives his ash cross and for some unknown reason follows Gina up to the balcony in his drug zone. While there, she screams and begins to bleed from one of her palms. In horrific amazement he kneels before her and takes her hand, desperate to help her, knowing he can’t even help himself. The blood touches him, he smells a beautiful rose fragrance, and she runs off to the ladies’ room. He is no longer stoned.

A technique I described yesterday for POV shifts in chapter divisions is used to chronicle the thoughts behind the actions of the characters in this novel. Gina is an ordinary young single mother with “issues”, as Mair likes to put it, a woman who pictures herself as loving the Lord but not in a particularly worthy manner. Anthony Priest has become a shell of a young man with unlimited talent for telling a story but who now indulges in chronic drug use to overshadow the pain of the utter hatred and outright rejection shown to him by his mother, Veronica, or Ronnie as she is sometimes called. Veronica personifies the hypocrisy of the embittered, self-gratifying, self-pitying individual who fancies herself a Christian but is devoid of love or kindness or any sort of forgiveness because of her intense bitterness caused by a tragic event in her young life. As Mair’s books often do, she exposes all kinds of character flaws and makes us cringe in the process as her words hold up a mirror to our souls.

As if the events surrounding the stigmata occurrences aren’t surprising enough, the miraculous healings of wounded spirits while exposing the unbelief of Christian people in supernatural situations points to the calloused views we often form of our faith. Heaven forbid something unusual happens in the church!

This story hits a homerun so far out of the park, I can’t even process the distance. There are so many valid subjects addressed in the novel about the inner workings of faith, the supernatural choices of an unlimited God, the righteous love which yearns to be cultivated in us through our Savior, and the arduous battles with which we wrestle against the enemy of our souls. Not to mention the validity of true suffering. All of that with genuine humor mixed in like a rich but light salad dressing.

I think it’s important to note that the supernatural aspects of this novel extend beyond its pages. In the “after words” section at the end of the book, if you’re like me, you skip the discussion questions, but don’t skip Mair’s conversation with friends at the very end. God is so wonderfully outside our little boxes.

Claudia Mair Burney will tell you she’s been just about every denomination known to man in her lifetime thus far. I am not Catholic because I have a problem with some of their doctrine, but if an individual loves Jesus and believes in his death and resurrection as the only way to heaven, then we can all laugh together in heaven about our doctrinal divisions on earth. This novel merges denominational differences effectively and proclaims the beauty and sovereignty of God in His fullness.

Fascinating novel.
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hopeofglory wrote this review Tuesday, September 9 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“The (unlikely) Heir

Barely tolerating the funeral proceedings of his estranged father who he refers to by his first name of Melvin, Jason Boyer is not in mourning. Having lost his mother at the age of five when his younger brother Eric was just two, all Jason really knows of his father is wealth, power, and corruption, a man who remained an emotional stranger to both of his sons. Although Jason acquired a business degree from his Harvard education, he’s never had to use it because of the ample stipends he’s received from his father’s provisions to his sons.

Told in first person by Jason Boyer, we learn that Jason assumes his life will continue within its current allotted framework so that he and his wife of three years can continue their “idle rich” existence in perhaps a bit more lavishness from his father’s estate with the bulk of it going to a worldwide assistance foundation his father originated. However, when the will is revealed, Jason becomes “the heir” of the bulk of Melvin’s incredible wealth. The fury Jason experiences at the prospect of continuing in the footsteps of his father is intense. How dare his father put him in the position of carrying on as his father had? The man Jason disrespects, resents, and barely knew . . .

Jason’s first reactions are to refuse to accept it, to give it all away, to redirect it back to the foundation—anything but to keep it. However, his wife Katie is deeply in love with the prospect of spending all that money and the status it will incur. His little brother Eric thinks it’s just wonderful that his big brother is now the boss, and Melvin’s shrewd attorney is anxious to get on with things just the way they’ve always been.

Shortly after it’s discovered that Melvin’s car accident may not have been one, and as Jason begins the clean up of the intricacies of corruption within his father’s little empire, more murders occur.

While I have never hobnobbed with the wealthy, I’ve known a few rich people. They come in all sizes, shapes, colors, and kinds. Some are generous, others are remarkably tight. Some are ordinary people, others are arrogant and obnoxious. Jason is likable because he makes no bones about enjoying his inherited stipend. But he questions the value of his life constantly, wondering what his purpose really is. His character’s perceptions of his family, his life, the people who surround him, are fascinating and humorous and often insightful. When he gains his father’s wealth, he is afraid of becoming Melvin because of who he sees him as being.

During one of his investigations into his father’s mansion, he discovers something in his father’s bedside table that begins to erode a small bit of his perceptions.

This is another well-written mystery with interesting characters who are developed well and who stay true to themselves. The novel presents a mini-study of mostly purposeless people who are glutted with a lust for money and power. It’s not a “happy” story, although in the beginning Jason’s humorous accounts and sidebars into his mind are very entertaining. But as the corruption is discovered, Jason gets a truer look at who he has always been, and the despair which envelops him as the story progresses feels painful and real. One incident in the final pages seemed to occur a tad too easy, and then it was a quick journey to the hopeful ending. I never enjoy that moment when it feels like someone begins to pull the curtain on a story with a quick solution, but this plot element was going to happen anyway, so it wasn’t too disturbing.

This is an excellent first novel from Paul Robertson, a compelling story which requires serious page turning. The voice created for Jason Boyer is unique and appealing when it could’ve been just as easy to hate the guy. Well done.
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hopeofglory wrote this review Wednesday, August 27 2008. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“All Through the Night . . . and into the morning.
The second novel for this week’s CFBA tour is Davis Bunn’s All Through the Night. I’ve read a few of the prolific author’s novels, and one thing that can be said for all of them is they’re entertaining. Having been an author of bestsellers, the recipient of Christy Awards, and books which have sold in excess of six million copies in multiple languages, the guy’s simply a professional novelist, not to mention he is currently serving as the writer-in-residence at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University.

Now one might assume with those credentials Mr. Bunn could be a writer of primarily what we’ve learned to call “literary” prose—what some action seeking readers deem pompous or stilted. The exact opposite is true. His protagonists are all male, flawed and vulnerable, who tend to make up for their sensitivity in a bit of bravado and rely upon a silent, often incommunicado strength. The plots usually take several twists with unreliable characters popping up to confuse the reader and other colorful unique individuals dotting the landscape and subplots of the story while providing all kinds of information and depth to a basic storyline of intelligent, suspenseful, and interesting mysteries.

The unusual source(s) of alienation in his protagonists leads the characters to make sacrificial decisions, and skillfully and intricately woven into these decisions is the choice every man must make for himself as to who and what he will believe in and turn to in the inevitable times of crisis.

All Through the Night gives us 31 year old ex-special ops Wayne Gruzsa (“It’s pronounced ‘Grusha’.”), who is also an army trained accountant, hired by a poor retirement community to recover the life savings of its residents commandeered by a scam artist. Introduced to the opportunity by his pastor sister who has reclaimed him from the hiding out portion of his life after love and war and divorce, he is a man who struggles with nightmares and stealth night addictions to extreme visits just to spy on his ex-wife and her husband and little boy. While you feel his urge to destroy the man who now possesses his former love, you also sense he could never do it because of his innate sense of his own fault in the marriage’s demise.

What can I say? This is a skillfully told tale, entertaining in content and structure, filled with some impossible events which made me want to cheer, all the while exposing the searing pain in the hero and some of those around him but bringing the gradual and necessary healings to those in need of redemption. The ending did not conclude with the resolution of the climactic circumstances, instead gradually satisfying some emotional remnants which allowed the story a graceful finale.

Very, very entertaining story.

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hopeofglory wrote this review Thursday, August 7 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Try Dying . . . or try not to!
Okay, a few days ago I “reviewed” (and that’s the final time I’m going to use quotation marks, okay?) James Scott Bell’s Try Darkness, the second in this series which will produce at least three books, although the third won’t be out until next year unfortunately. So now I have read the series so far, albeit backwards. What a knockout character for Jim. Ty Buchanan is just cocky enough to gain a grudging respect and just devastated enough to evoke compassion.

Let’s start with the covers. Why you ask? Because number one I really like them. Why you ask? The titles are readable instead of drawing the eyes all over the dust jackets to find them because the author’s name dominates the cover and nearly conceals the title of the book. I really, really don’t like that. So I’m thinkin’ James Scott Bell has enough rep established to allow the cover art and book title to entice and pique the readers’ interest without the oversized author name. Good job, Hachette. I respect that.

Try Dying introduces us to the clever, smug, zealous, and so in love attorney Tyler Buchanan. Before we know it, his fiancée is found dead in her car after what appears to be a freak accident following the suicide of a murderer. Willing to accept the oddity of her death, he is cast into a traumatic turmoil after being accosted following her funeral when a mysterious man implies she survived the initial accident only to be murdered in her car afterward.

This incident begins two things: Ty Buchanan enduring more than one serious assault and Ty Buchanan eventually being accused of murdering someone who is supposed to be helping him uncover whether or not his fiancée was the victim of a murder.

Through this course of events, Ty comes face to face with a part of himself he’s never known, the desire to see justice accomplished at any cost, and a new revulsion for those he’s worked with in establishing his upwardly mobile career as a sharp young attorney at a prestigious law firm.

If you like intriguing legal suspense with a cast of smart, charming, lethal, ugly, unpredictable, and appealing characters, do not resist this two book series by James Scott Bell. It’s just too good to miss, and Jim’s having way too much fun creating it.

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hopeofglory wrote this review Thursday, August 7 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“At a loss in . . . Dogwood
This has been a rewarding summer in the reading department. The CFBA blog tours have provided an ample selection of valuable novels, and my other selections have exceeded or at least equaled my high expectations for the choices I’ve made.

Now to add to the growing collection of worthwhile novels: Chris Fabry’s first adult novel, Dogwood. The West Virginia native, “husband of one and father of nine” as he likes to say, has authored over 50 children’s and young adult books, and he is the host of the “Chris Fabry Live!” on Moody Radio, the Love Worth Finding broadcast. Suffice it to say his credentials are no small potatoes.

I cannot pinpoint how this happens, but some writers just inspire me to flex my writing muscles—to get down to it again, dive in for total immersion, engaging that story which simmers in my mind’s eye. Chris Fabry’s writing did that for me. He made me want to be better, to encapsulate myself within the words absorbing them into my bloodstream in order to somehow produce a living, breathing story. Oh, I know the feeling, but with this blog I’ve gotten away from “the novel” for awhile, and now it’s like I’m starving myself—or maybe it’s just finally occurring to me that I’m ingesting a bunch of junk food and trying to “live” healthy. Regardless of analogies, his writing is rewarding, so wonderfully and at the same time painfully real, that I remember what it feels like to “compose” a story. Thank you for that, Chris.

Dogwood is a multiple character study of several members of the small town, the protagonist Will facing his release from 12 years of prison, the memory of his first and only love keeping him sane and almost hopeful. The vision of his dreams for the future, Karin, is struggling with a tormented existence which she perceives as empty, lifeless, and corrupted by her memories and rekindled desires for Will after being convinced by an elderly friend to visit him not long before his release. She spends most of her nights in her closet unable to sleep.

The town of Dogwood has not forgiven Will for the car accident which slaughtered the children of one family, and he returns to hateful stares and trouble keeping a job. He learns a good friend from his youth has disappeared, and nothing seems right about the speculations as to his whereabouts. His strained relationship with his brother and the menacing threats from the new sheriff all add up to more misery, difficulty, and obstacles for Will’s realization of any kind of dream.

The subplots and intersections of all these characters reveal an intricate connection to one another. I haven’t decided if I’m completely in agreement with the choices made for the ending of this novel, but I’ll tell you this: the writing makes up for my differences with the plot direction and makes it more than a worthy read. I know I’ve been saying this a lot lately—and I know when someone reviews a book with superfluous comments, it can get old and seem a bit dishonest—but I truly loved this book.

The primary reason for my feelings is that Chris presents so many depictions of people and circumstances planted in a reality and voiced by individuals who you or I as a reader have either seen or known in our actual lives. They become familiar and you would recognize their voices and attitudes even if the chapters weren’t titled with their names. There are only a couple of stereotypes—easily noticed without my identification—but for the most part this story puts you smack dab in the middle of small town America with an angry attitude, a hypocritical desire to make someone pay, and a grudge to hold for as long as necessary. Contrasted to that is a love so deep and inextinguishable, it holds you captive with its hope—even when you wonder if it’s okay to hope for its consummation.

This is a beautiful story written oh so well. Read it if you can.

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hopeofglory wrote this review Sunday, August 3 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“My visit to . . . The Shack

I confess I had next to no desire to read this little novel. For, as it turned out, a multitude of reasons which began long before the controversy. I had no interest in it because of its size: too, too small. So there was no way I was buying the thing. Through a mini-chain of events which seemed interesting, I decided to read the book, and since a friend of mine had it, I borrowed it. Then I got a free copy because of the “interesting” events to come. So: I ended up “having” to read it.

Now I no longer understand two things. One: what is all the fuss/buzz/controversy about? Two: why is there this love/hate thing going on with this little novel?

Technically speaking, this has that “first novel feel” to it I described in an earlier post. Theoretically, that could be explained away by the “Foreword” which is supposedly written by “Willie”, a friend who is the narrator/writer for the protagonist’s (Mackenzie) experience in the tragic loss of one of his children, his six year old daughter, to a stealthy serial killer on the final day of a camping trip. The long time spent in self-loathing and what is called and known as “The Great Sadness” precedes a return trip to “the shack” where the heinous crime took place after Mack receives a handwritten note of invitation from “Papa”, a term his wife Nan uses in reference to God.

I do find it interesting that some readers have exalted this book to a theologically higher level, but I also find it rather disturbing that some readers have treated it as outright heresy. In a good portion of the novels I read, authors take their liberties in the inclusion of doctrines they assume to be faultless and with which I take exception and do not agree. So what I’m saying is if you’re a reader of Christian fiction: get used to it or get over it. It surely wasn’t God’s idea to divide us all up in denominations, but, alas, we are. In most of my novels, you’ll get a hint of the doctrine I believe but not all of them. God has proven Himself far less condemning than humans . . . if you get my drift.

Because this read much like a first novel and because my initial interest in the story was limited, I admit I struggled and dragged myself through the first three quarters of the book, but the last quarter of the story before Mack’s return from the shack was very entertaining, and I found some good concepts there.

I also find it amazing how often it is repeated that novels should never be “preachy”—that readers will be offended and refuse to read those books—because The Shack is one long sermon. There is very little of this “story” which isn’t infused with theology and the author’s personal concept of who he believes God truly is delivered in what can really only be called sermonizing dialogue. It’s far less novel than it is a personal treatise on divine concepts. And where is this little book on the bestseller lists? Aahh, the wonderful ability of the publishing world to predict and dictate “trends”, huh?

The truth which exudes from this little story is that the infallible God, Jesus, Holy Spirit is Love, Goodness, Perfection, and really indefinable in the human sense. We can only know a part of His vastness, that He truly loves us in spite of us, and that His ways are higher than our ways.

One of the most valuable little quotations from this story that I found is the following:

“Mack, just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn’t mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don’t ever assume that my using something means that I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes. That will only lead you to false notions about me. Grace doesn’t depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering, you will find grace in many facets and colors.”

While I don’t agree with all of William P. Young’s God concepts, I definitely think the uproar and shouts of heresy are a bit over the top and sound an awful lot like a desire to preserve a rigid “religion” instead of growing in the saving grace of a relationship with Jesus Christ to know God, our Father, and to be awakened and instructed by the Holy Spirit, the Counselor and Comforter.

Anyway, that’s my take on my visit to The Shack.
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hopeofglory wrote this review Wednesday, July 30 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“Not so Perfect after all . . .
Around the blogosphere in recent times and periodically throughout each year, the subject of “voice” makes its rounds. Well, there is one voice in the author crowd that I have always enjoyed and maybe especially in his latest novel Perfect, and that is the voice of Dr. Harry Kraus who can be found with his wife on the medical mission field of East Africa.

Perfect is narrated by the wife of surgeon extraordinaire Henry J. Stratford, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S., F.R.C.S., a man who unintentionally wooed this trophy wife with his compassion after performing her gall bladder surgery. When she went against all her pastor’s daughter upbringing, risking it all during her final visit with him by wearing red lacy underwear (what if her father knew?!), literally throwing herself at him in the examination room daring him to kiss her and being gorgeous enough to pull it off, she hooked him and they were married, becoming the “perfect” couple accompanied by all the other “perfections”—at least from an outsider’s point of view.

However, as most of us know, nothing on earth is “perfect”, and so under the guise of shedding her hypocrisy and the utter boredom of her marriage to Dr. Perfect, she plans a trip to Jamaica with her piano teacher, the younger and hunky choir director at her father’s church which is located directly across the street from her stately mansion. When she has purchased the tickets and packed her bags, she decides to invite the attractive man to join her for a week of island romance. She sends him away from her seductive lesson giving him a short timeline to decide if he wants to join her, counting on a favorable decision. As she watches from a window of her home, she witnesses a semi tractor plow into his Honda without stopping. Everything in her life shifts to crisis mode after this startling event.

Wendi Stratford gives us an unflattering summary of herself and her life as we share in her first effort at outright imperfection and deliberate sinful behavior. Having suffered with crippling guilt her entire life, she is enduring a slow death, suffocating under the weight and pressure of everything she has failed to do “perfectly” without ever letting on anything is wrong. Hiding under what she terms “plastic” smiles and “Christian” appearances, she decides she can no longer endure the façade of perfection and her strained relationship with a God who she assumes has condemned her for her past and present constant imperfections.

If you want tart, crackling prose, this is the book for you. Harry Kraus has written a mystery centered on the failings of individuals who’ve been deceived into believing a variety of self-centered, empty philosophies to delude them away from the truth they desperately need to survive and provide their lives with something more than mere performances. A prideful surgeon, admired by colleagues, and seduced by his own abilities finds himself in a situation that threatens to destroy his wife and his career. Fearing the worst, he makes a desperate attempt to provide the “perfect” solution.

In spite of the character flaws in Wendi and Henry, Dr. Kraus has managed to make them desirable. Perhaps it’s their vulnerability, or the delusion of who they’ve become in their lives, but we care about them regardless of their conduct. The ending brought tears from this reader.

To give too much away of the story would rob future readers of an incredible treat by a writer who gives “authentic” an extra kick. This is one of those “must read” novels. Way to go, Dr. Kraus!

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hopeofglory wrote this review Saturday, July 12 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“The Edge of Recall . . . and back.
The CFBA blog tour gave me the opportunity to read one of my favorite authors, Kristen Heitzmann. Although I don’t write exactly like her, it seems we handle the spark and chemistry of romance similarly. And I happen to love the way she does it. While her stories are never just about the element of romance, they include it as a vital part of life much like it truly is—admittedly or not, gentlemen. Her latest novel The Edge of Recall could best be described as a psychological drama/mystery, however that translates to genre.

Since Tessa Young was almost six years old, she’s spent the majority of her life hoping somehow her missing father is still alive, the man she loved and who loved her—at least that’s how she remembers him. Beyond that she can find no logical reason for him to have deserted his wife and daughter, and she longs for an explanation. However, entwined with that longing is the sense that something horrible possibly happened to him, and that she is to blame for whatever it was. Frequent and terrifying nightmares occupy her troubled sleep patterns, and since spending some time at a sanitarium for an inability to define a trauma in her early years, she has her psychiatrist’s telephone number on the speed dial of her cell phone.

Her career of architectural landscaping, which features the designing and/or restoration of labyrinths, provides the impetus for a college flame, one that has never quite been extinguished, to call her to enlist her unique talents for a secret project he’s contracted. When she decides to brave her remaining hurt from his long past obnoxious treatment of her choice to switch from architectural design to landscape design, they and a third partner encounter mysterious and nearly deadly consequences as they seek to build a structure on the land of a burned down monastery with a particular style of labyrinth.

In spite of all the emotional conflict, Tessa seemingly is getting closer to the edge of recall as her nightmares become more visual, potent, and revealing.

Four of my all time favorite novels are written by Kristen Heitzmann. She has a knack for visual and rich character development and realistic dialogue, great inner dialogue, and she knows how to resolve complicated stories without formula. Her females are often high-strung, emotional, and complicated. Her male characters are manly, real, never metro-sexual, and usually complex. Peripheral but strong characters fill the pages and become important to the story.

Interestingly (at least to me), Kristen has a few pet words (keen, keening) and phrases which inevitably seem to surface more than once and since the words are not ordinary they become noticeable and hard to ignore. In light of today’s editing “rules”, I find this odd. These words and phrases stand out and seem repetitious at times.

The back and forth between the two main characters in the first part of this story can get just a hair tedious as they are both in denial of their feelings for one another. These kinds of situations are difficult to make new or fresh. I cared for both of them, but at the same time they annoyed me. Not enough to disengage from the story which moved along at a good pace but enough for me to wish they’d hurry up and get past it even though a lot of the conflict had to do with Tessa’s inabilities to process her pain, past and present. When Smith (the architect) finally realizes some of the reasons for her being the way she is, his attraction to her is infused with the male urge to protect her.

There’s a lot more to this story than their romance and her psychological trauma, but the resolution to the trauma comes in a totally unusual and unpredictable way.

While I enjoyed this story, it did not rank up there with my top four of Kristen’s books.

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hopeofglory wrote this review Saturday, July 12 2008. ( reply | permalink )