An often suspenseful thriller, sometimes hampered by too much exposition.
In Hendley’s (Prelude, 2011) thriller, a devout Christian writer teams up with a reporter to find a connection between a messianic figure and a nuclear threat in the Middle East.
An international debate rages about the nature of the man called Mashiah, a mysterious but hugely popular faith healer who’s inspiring hard-line nationalism in Israel. Novelist Tony Nichols thinks little of this wannabe messiah’s secular spirituality, and his own studies of Biblical prophecy, and his heartfelt Christian faith, reveal that there’s something false and sinister about Mashiah. Later, one of Tony’s obsessed fans, a dying man, warns the writer that Mashiah is not what he seems; he also says that the answers to Tony’s questions lie in Spain. Tony reluctantly collaborates with unflappable reporter Jack Schwartz and uses Jack’s connections and his own considerable guile to prove that Mashiah’s power is demonic in nature. As a Mashiah-inspired terrorist organization makes nuclear overtures and natural disasters increase around the world, Tony and Jack could be witnessing the early signs of the end times. As in many world-spanning thrillers, Hendley fills his story with a large cast of characters, but they’re mostly men of power and privilege who aren’t memorable enough to draw attention away from the main characters. Tony and Jack establish an entertaining, if sometimes-repetitive, rapport, with Tony, the staunch, conservative believer, egging on Jack, the voice of doubt; their friendly jibing is a highlight of the book. However, both characters are a bit thinly developed; the novel never explores their motives very deeply, aside from Tony’s initial experience with the dying man and Jack’s journalistic zeal. That said, the book excels at creating intrigue, with plenty of back-room scenes, references to civil unrest in the Middle East and biblical prophecy, although it often seems more comfortable drawing out conversations than exploring the international fallout.
An often suspenseful thriller, sometimes hampered by too much exposition.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484196335
Page Count: 416
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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