by Katherine Pasour ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2012
A Christian-oriented thriller with a wild but entertaining plot.
In Pasour’s debut novel, a devout Christian college professor thwarts a terrorist attack in England and becomes a prime target of terrorists in America.
Emily Ratliffe always wanted to travel. When she gets the opportunity to present her work at conference in England, her hotel is struck by a biological terrorist attack. All the hotel’s occupants become ill, and many die, as the hotel is put under quarantine. Ratliffe also gets sick but manages to survive thanks to the prayers of an old friend. Ratliffe then decides to save the rest of the hotel—through prayer, and physical and spiritual caregiving. She also uncovers the identity of the terrorist behind the attack. Meanwhile, the professor develops a deep friendship with Edward Fitzwilliam, an undercover British intelligence officer posing as the hotel manager. Ratliffe eventually returns home to her husband and children in North Carolina—but murderous terrorists still have her in their sights, and it’s up to Fitzwilliam to save her. At its best, this thriller is nothing less than an action-packed page-turner. Although the prose sometimes gets overloaded with prayer and Bible verses, particularly in its earlier sections, it flows more easily as the story progresses. However, the early passages do help develop the characters: “Emily reached for Joseph’s hand. ‘It is probably too late for that, but I want you to know that I forgive you and I will continue to pray that you will seek Jesus as your Savior. He will forgive you, love you, and bring you away from this evil. Trust Him.’”
A Christian-oriented thriller with a wild but entertaining plot.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2012
ISBN: 978-1462722730
Page Count: 516
Publisher: CrossBooks
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by C.S. Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1942
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
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by Heather Morris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2018
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as...
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An unlikely love story set amid the horrors of a Nazi death camp.
Based on real people and events, this debut novel follows Lale Sokolov, a young Slovakian Jew sent to Auschwitz in 1942. There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify them. When the Tätowierer, as he is called, meets fellow prisoner Gita Furman, 17, he is immediately smitten. Eventually, the attraction becomes mutual. Lale proves himself an operator, at once cagey and courageous: As the Tätowierer, he is granted special privileges and manages to smuggle food to starving prisoners. Through female prisoners who catalog the belongings confiscated from fellow inmates, Lale gains access to jewels, which he trades to a pair of local villagers for chocolate, medicine, and other items. Meanwhile, despite overwhelming odds, Lale and Gita are able to meet privately from time to time and become lovers. In 1944, just ahead of the arrival of Russian troops, Lale and Gita separately leave the concentration camp and experience harrowingly close calls. Suffice it to say they both survive. To her credit, the author doesn’t flinch from describing the depravity of the SS in Auschwitz and the unimaginable suffering of their victims—no gauzy evasions here, as in Boy in the Striped Pajamas. She also manages to raise, if not really explore, some trickier issues—the guilt of those Jews, like the tattooist, who survived by doing the Nazis’ bidding, in a sense betraying their fellow Jews; and the complicity of those non-Jews, like the Slovaks in Lale’s hometown, who failed to come to the aid of their beleaguered countrymen.
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as nonfiction. Still, this is a powerful, gut-wrenching tale that is hard to shake off.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-279715-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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