A compelling story filled with realistic characters displaying genuine emotion.
Arnold’s (Peace: Medjugorje Miracle and Message, 2004, etc.) novel is a well-crafted religious fiction about a big city lawyer who moves to a small town seeking a secure environment in which to raise her young daughter, only to find that she must face her worst nightmares.
Karen is a bright 30-something lawyer in a prestigious Los Angeles law firm. Although she is plagued by the untimely, accidental death of her husband, she delights in parenting their six-year-old daughter, Lisa. Karen thrives on hard work and single motherhood, yet worries that city life is too dangerous for raising a child. She and Lisa move to rural Oregon, where the pace is slower, the air is cleaner and the people are more caring and friendly. Or at least that’s what Karen thought–soon after their arrival, Lisa is brutally raped and murdered by a pedophile. Despite the fact that the murderer is caught and convicted, Karen is unable to rid herself of personal guilt. She interviews a prestigious psychiatrist who specializes in pedophilia cases and concludes that castration is the only cure for the mental illness. Determined to do everything she can to avenge Lisa’s death and assuage her guilt, Karen returns to her old job in Los Angeles and aids a former colleague in prosecuting a child molester. When the women suggest castration as a plea-bargaining solution, the case blows up in their faces. They lose their jobs, their reputations and become estranged. Karen seeks solace from a fatherly priest in a Catholic confessional. Re-energized, she marries and partners in business with David, a ruggedly handsome, successful businessman who makes her laugh. When a business deal falls through, their idyllic lifestyle crashes. Near total breakdown, Karen and David look to their religious roots for comfort, answers and a fresh start. Frequent lack of appropriate punctuation, choppy sentences and less-than-fluid movement between first person narrative and third person viewpoints only slightly detract from the story. The characterization and atmospheric staging otherwise blend seamlessly to provide a distinct and well-paced plot.
A compelling story filled with realistic characters displaying genuine emotion.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4196-8922-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
