Tom Pawlik
417 pages

Connor Hayden had a heart attack two months ago. His heart stopped beating and during that time he had a near-death experience. He spent time in a place called Interworld which is a place that is a passage between this life and the next. During his time in Interworld he encountered other people: Helen, Howard, Mitch, and Devon. Valley of the Shadow is primarily about Connor’s interactions with Howard, Mitch, and Devon.
Mitch is trapped in Interworld but he doesn’t know it . Devon was revived but he didn’t return alone. <insert spooky music here>

Seriously, Valley of the Shadow was a page-turner from the get-go. It was one of those books that I really  didn’t want to put down. Interworld is a really creepy place. The reader is presented with just enough mystery that you keep reading to find out that extra little tidbit. The only problem is that once that mystery is solved you’re immediately faced with another. It took great restraint to put the book down and go to sleep when I needed to.

I would love to go back and read Vanish by Tom Pawlik to see how this all started. Fortunately for me, I recently acquired a copy from PBS.

I highly recommend Valley of the Shadow. There’s a blurb on the front cover that says, “Fans of Dean Koontz and Ted Dekker will appreciate Pawlik’s debut novel, Vanish.“- Library Journal.

I can tell you that I am a big fan of one of these authors. The other, not so much. However, I am a fan of Tom Pawlik’s. If you love edge-of-your-seat fiction without gore, check out this series. (5/5)

Lynn Austin
432 pages

Violet Hayes has always thought that her mother, who left when she was nine years old, was in a hospital somewhere struggling to recover and return to her family. However, upon announcing his intention to remarry her father tells her that her mother didn’t want to be tied down and that she left and divorced him. Violet discovers that her mother is in Chicago and since the World’s Fair(the year is 1893)is in town, Violet convinces her father to let her go there, stay with her grandmother, and see the Fair. She has intentions of searching for her mother and finding a little adventure. She also hopes to find love. Everyone seems to have their own agenda for Violet but she must do some soul-searching and discover what she truly wants as well as God’s will for her life before she is ready to fall in love.

Lynn Austin is one of my favorite authors. I have read several of her books and loved them all. Since A Proper Pursuit is a Christy award winner, I decided to read it for the Book Awards Challenge. As I mentioned this book was set at the turn of the century. In the past, this hasn’t been one of my favorite time periods to read about but since I have loved everything else written by Lynn Austin, I didn’t let that deter me. Violet is headstrong and beautiful as you would expect from our heroine. She is proposed to no less than three times in one week. However, each gentleman that has proposed has done so for his own selfish reasons and has not mentioned love to Violet. It takes her a while but Violet sorts out her life and reaches a satisfactory conclusion. It seemed to take her a bit too long, in my opinion, but she gets there eventually.

Overall,I enjoyed reading A Proper Pursuit. I found it a bit predictable and not my favorite Austin book but still very sweet. (3/5)

Sibella Giorello
270 pages

In the middle of a hot Richmond summer two men(one white and one black) fall from the top of a warehouse during a racially-charged rally. Though there are hundreds of people at the rally, no one sees anything.

Raleigh Harmon is an FBI Agent who specializes in forensic geology. She is assigned to investigate this case as a civil rights case. Her supervisor considers it a waste of time and manpower and she is breathing down her neck to wrap it up quickly. Raleigh wants to do it right but can Richmond’s racial unrest be contained while she solves this case?

The Stones Cry Out falls into the mystery category but it’s also Christian Fiction. I wouldn’t say that it’s a thrill ride or grabs you and won’t let go but I would say that it’s steadily paced to keep your interest. Raleigh’s field of geology is interesting and I thought that it was handled well. It’s the type of information that is interesting in small does but could easily be overdone if it was written in minute detail. That’s not the case in this story.

Raleigh is a Christian and there are definite elements of faith in the story but, once again, they are handled nicely and don’t come off as pretentious or preachy.

My only problem with The Stones Cry Out came during dream sequences where Raleigh’s dead father directs her investigation. It just seemed sort of been there, done that, to me. Yet, on the other hand, it’s very sweet to think of her father helping her even after his death. It’s a bit contradictory but I guess I both liked and disliked the dreams.

I would recommend The Stones Cry Out if you enjoy good, clean, mysteries. It’s an enjoyable read and it also won the Christy Award for Best First Novel in 2008. (3.5/5)

Mike Dellosso
301 pages

Scream begins with Mark Stone talking on his cell phone with a friend, Jeff. The call is interrupted by what sounds like screaming and wailing on the line. It is heard by both parties but they just assume that it’s some type of interference. Then Mark hears the obvious sounds of a car accident and he is unable to raise Jeff on the phone. He makes his way to where Jeff was driving and finds that he was killed in a fiery crash.

Mark is shaken by the memory of the screams that he has heard and the fact that they happened right before his friend was killed but when the circumstances repeat themselves two more times in fairly rapid succession, Mark begins to understand what the screaming is about. He is being given a warning. He hears the screams when people are about to die.

Raised in a harsh and legalistic home, Mark hasn’t given much thought to his faith or what happens to a person after death since he left home. However, when he hears the screams while talking on the phone with his estranged wife, it all becomes very personal.

I have to admit that I was not sure that I would like this book. I haven’t typically liked some of the titles that I have read that have been “Christian Thrillers.” I’m not sure if it’s because of the genre or if I just didn’t click with the particular author.

Scream is a thriller in that it deals with both the supernatural and a real-world menace. On the one hand there is the threat and the warning of the screams and on the other hand there is a crazy man called The Judge who is abducting women. It’s suspenseful, it’s thought-provoking, I enjoyed the writing style and it kept me turning the pages.

While I typically prefer to point people to God’s mercy and grace when examining matters of faith, there is another side to the Gospel and it is clearly presented in Scream.  Mike Dellosso did a wonderful job wrapping it in an engaging story. (4/5)

Footnote:  I think it’s worth noting that this author is currently dealing with colon cancer and has written about it in the preface of Scream. I found his words eloquent and wanted to share an exerpt:

Now I think about death all the time. Cancer has a way of doing that, of reminding you of the frailty of your existence, the brevity of life. Of reminding you that we’re all just walking on a thing sheet of ice that can crack or break at any moment.

But thinking about death is a good thing. The wise king Solomon wrote, “We must all die, and everyone living should think about this. (See Ecclesiastes 7:2) Good advice. Thinking about death forces us to think about life, something most of us don’t do nearly enough. And thinking about life forces us to think about how we’re living our life, something all of us should do a lot more of. - Scream, preface  pgs ix, x

Lynn Austin
428 pages

 The circumstances of life have dealt a tough blow to the Carlson sisters. First, their beloved mother dies. Next, their father dies under circumstances that ruin life for them in their Swedish village. Their uncle and his family come to live with them but rather than helping the situation it only creates new problems as their brother Nils, unable to get along with their uncle, abandons both the family farm and his sisters. The girls want to hold on to their only home but oldest sister Elin carries a dark secret. She decides that the only thing she can do to escape the stigma they carry in the village is to escape to America. So she writes to her mother’s favorite brother who lives in Chicago and asks him the help arrange for their passage. He obliges but once the sisters arrive in America they find that their new beginning is filled with hard work and deprivation.  All the girls want is to feel loved and to have a home of their own but they have many miles to go and many lessons to learn before they will find one.

One of the things that makes Lynn Austin one of my favorite authors is her ability to write characters whose lives mirror real life no matter what time period she is writing from. This book takes place in the late 1800’s but you still find flawed characters dealing with issues that still plague us. Hunger, poverty, neglect, poor choices, etc.

She also has the ability to present the message of Christ without making it feel forced. It flows with the circumstances in the lives of the characters and like it would in real life.  The characters in this story are not happy-go-lucky. They are angry with God for their circumstances and His apparent lack of care for their pain and we are present as they work their way through their grief.

My one complaint would be that I felt like the dialogue was strained in a few places. I still enjoyed this one a lot though and I would recommend it to readers of Christian Fiction and Historical Fiction. (4/5)