A thriller with a Christian angle and an ample supply of puzzle pieces to entice readers of any creed.
The chief of police and the new youth pastor in a Georgia town encounter demonic forces in the author’s debut novel.
The coastal town of Sea Mist has had so little crime that cops don’t have the Miranda rights memorized. So contending with a missing person and a dead cop found in the woods puts a lot on Chief Ed Geffen’s plate. Auntie Bell, known for her gift of sight, has visions of an impending evil—ostensibly confirmed by the onslaught of strange animals, including giant snakes and apelike creatures. And Ed, along with the community church’s latest hire, Pastor Tom Grant, believes the man responsible may be the Antichrist. Hendley’s book seems aimed at Christian readers. Its intentions clearly aren’t to alienate non-Christian readers, but the religious message of Tom’s sermons and classes sometimes commandeers the plot. And while he preaches beliefs that some might not agree with, e.g., Christianity is the only path to God, the plot continues elsewhere, as Ed questions Tom’s students. Sea Mist, a resort town with luxurious beachside homes, provides an excellent, atmospheric backdrop for evil. The supernatural elements—a tiger with horizontal stripes, a protective white light—add interest. But it’s the real-world dilemmas that hold the most weight, such as Ed’s uncertainty over what to tell the public regarding the ongoing murder cases and Tom’s anxiety on his first day as the youth pastor. The novel’s final act maintains its religious theme and suspense as Tom, Ed and their loved ones become targets for otherworldly beasts. The author also infuses the narrative with a bit of humor, even acknowledging the offbeat plot when the editor of a local newspaper, a notorious “kook,” summarizes the bizarre goings-on for a private investigator.
A thriller with a Christian angle and an ample supply of puzzle pieces to entice readers of any creed.Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-1463727741
Page Count: 368
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2012
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
A charming and incisive debut.
Four young nuns wind up running a halfway house full of quirky characters in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Four Catholic sisters live with the elderly Sister Roberta in upstate New York. All on the edge of turning 30, the young women are at loose ends: Their day care is shuttered, and Sister Roberta is retiring. However, the four women refuse to be parted: “We were fixed to one another, like parts of some strange, asymmetrical body: Frances was the mouth; Mary Lucille, the heart; Therese, the legs. And I, Agatha, the eyes.” Eventually, the Buffalo diocese decides to transfer them to Rhode Island, where they are put in charge of running Little Neon, a “Mountain Dew”–colored house for residents trying to get sober and get back on their feet. When the local Catholic high school needs someone to teach geometry, the sisters volunteer Agatha, who is labelled as the quietest but the smartest of the quartet. As Agatha immerses herself in her new life, she finds the residents of Little Neon, from parolee Baby to Tim Gary, whose disfigured jaw prevents him from finding love, open her eyes to new realities, as do her colleagues and students at the high school. Eventually, Agatha can no longer ignore that the church, and most of all she herself, is changing. Luchette’s novel, her first, is structured in small chapters that feel like vignettes from a slightly wacky indie film. The book is frequently vibrant with resonant images: Agatha learning to roller skate in Little Neon’s driveway or a resident drunk in a sequined dress riding a lawnmower through the snow. But even though the book feels light, Luchette does not turn away from the responsibility of examining the darkness undergirding the institution of the Catholic Church.
A charming and incisive debut.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-26526-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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