Author Archives: Barbara Harper

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About Barbara Harper

https://barbarah.wordpress.com

Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

It’s been an eventful week here. But God sprinkles good things along the way. Here are a few, sharing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. My husband’s surgery. Jim had surgery Wednesday, and when they opened him up, they found a large undiagnosed hernia with part of his small intestines poking through. (He was aware of the bulge and had asked three different doctors about it in past years. They told him it was “fatty deposits” and nothing to worry about.)

In one of the biggest blessings of all, a surgeon who could deal with that was on the premises and willing to jump in and repair it. If she had not been, Jim’s surgeon would have scrapped the original surgery until this could be taken care of. Then we’d have another, possible two surgeries to take care of the original problem plus this. So even though he was under a couple of hours longer and has an extra incision, we’re more thankful than we can say that it all got taken care of at once.

We came home yesterday. He came through everything fine and is getting around well. Trying to stay on top of the pain is a challenge, so your prayers for that and for an absence of infection and complications would be greatly appreciated.

2. Finding my way. I’m familiar with two hospitals in the area, one just down the street. One or both of us had been patients in them in the past. But my only experience with the hospital the surgery was scheduled in was getting lost when I was there for an appointment years ago. On one level, I knew there would be signs and people to ask if I couldn’t figure out where to go. And I knew that someone would tell me where I needed to wait. But I still had this irrational jittery feeling.

But the surgery center of this hospital was pretty compact. There was always someone to help me find which way to go, and it didn’t take long to learn my way around.

3. Helpful people. Almost everyone we interacted with was very nice. One nurse directed me to the cafeteria, which was quite a long walk from the holding area, where Jim was waiting before surgery (we had a three-hour delay due to one of the robotic arms beings broken). On my way back, she happened to be coming from the cafeteria as well and offered to take me through a shortcut “the back way.” Then the receptionist at the surgery center was there longer than usual. When Jim was in recovery, she told me someone would call to tell me his room number. But when I came back to the waiting area after eating dinner, she was still there and called to get the room number and see if I could go on up.

Jason went the extra mile(s) literally. We’d had to park way away from the surgery center entrance. We had left Jim’s overnight bag in the car so I didn’t have to lug it around all day. The original procedure was supposed to be out-patient, so we thought we probably wouldn’t need the overnight bag anyway. I had a hard time walking from the car to the surgery center anyway, and walking back by myself and in the dark seemed impossible. I called Jason both to ask for some things at home and to see if if would take me to the car. Then, because the parking lot had emptied out a little bit, I was able to bring the car closer to the entrance. Bonus blessing: we got all that done a little before 9, when they locked the doors. After 9, we would have had to come in through the emergency room entrance and then find our way back to the surgery center.

When we got home, we found my dear daughter-in-law had made five meals for us. That was so much appreciated.

dinners

4. Praying friends and loved ones. I had asked several people to pray beforehand and then kept them updated through the day. Their notes and prayers really encouraged me.

5. New fall arrangement. Before all of this, when I set out my fall decorations, I was missing a little cream colored pitcher where I usually place some fake fall leaves. I found another fallish vase, but it was larger, and the proportion wasn’t right.

So last week I had gotten some fall stems at Hobby Lobby and put them in this week:

Jim thought the little white pumpkins looked like marshmallows. 🙂 It’s a little bigger than what I like to keep in that space, but I like it.

Bonus: Fall color is finally coming through in the leaves. It’s still not quite as vibrant in our neighborhood, but we saw a feast of color on our way to and from the hospital.

And that is our week. May our eyes always be open to seeing God’s hand in our lives.

Review and Giveaway: Chasing Shadows

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Chasing Shadows by Lynn Austin

In Chasing Shadows, a novel by Lynn Austin, people of the Netherlands thought they would be safe during WW2 because their country was neutral. But the Nazis invaded and took over anyway.

Lena de Vries is a farmer’s wife with a son and two daughters. She loves her life, though she has frequent arguments with her daughter, Ans.

Ans doesn’t care for farm life and doesn’t embrace her family’s faith. When she has an opportunity to move to Leiden, she takes it. She’s offered a job as a companion to a woman named Eloise with “melancholia”–her symptoms sound like what we would call bipolar disorder today. Eloise is depressed by her losses during WW1. When the Nazis invade, she’s in danger of sinking further. Ans starts helping in small, but ever-increasing ways with the Resistance. When Eloise finds ways she can help, too, she’s energized.

Ans had begun dating a Dutch policeman, Erik. The Nazis took over the police force, but Erik thought the best way to cope was just to get along with them. But they increasingly require more and more, and he and Ans differ about where they should draw the line.

Jewess Miriam Jacobs fled Germany with her father, who procured a teaching position in Leiden. They planned to send for Miriam’s mother later. But when the Nazis came, there was nowhere to escape. The coastline and borders were monitored. Some Jews who had escaped to other countries were turned away. One by one, the Nazis followed the same procedures as they had in Germany: limiting Jewish activity, requiring yellow stars on their clothing, eliminating their positions. When word came that Jews were being deported to settlement camps, Miriam and her father know they have to hide.

Meanwhile, Lena has to learn to let go—first of Ans when she leaves, then her husband Pieter when he trains for fighting, then her teenage son when the Nazis scoop up young men to build trenches and such. She and her husband hide both Jews and Dutch police who went underground rather than work for the Nazis. Though their food supply continues to dwindle, Lena can’t turn away the hungry that come to her farm.

I loved that this book didn’t cover just one thread–the Jewish persecution or the dangers of being in the Resistance or strains on the homefront—but dealt with facets of all of them. It was fully orbed, covering how the war affected and caused suffering for everyone. For instance, when the queen, in exile, orders railroad workers to strike, deportations of the Jews cease and Nazi supplies are stopped–but so are everyone else’s. There was widespread starving, especially in cities. People who had homes chopped up furniture to burn to keep warm, and animals of any kind (including cats and horses) weren’t safe from being caught and eaten.

Plus the three main characters are at different stages in life and at different levels in their faith. And each has to make nearly impossible choices.

I was so attached to these characters that I was sad to let them go when the story was over.

As it happens, I somehow ended up with two copies of this book. I think I bought it on sale but maybe forgot I had already received it for my birthday. Then the audiobook (nicely read by Stina Nielsen) came up free in the Audible “Plus” catalog, and I figured I’d get to it sooner via audio. But I still liked having the print books to refer to certain passages and read the book’s back material.

So I’d like to offer these two paperback books to a couple of my readers. I’m sorry I’ll have to restrict the giveaway to continental US addresses due to postage prices. If you’d like to enter a drawing for a copy of this book, leave a comment on this post. I’ll count all the comments on this post as entries unless you tell me you’d rather not be in the drawing. I’ll draw two names one week from today and contact the winners via email. If I can’t reach you or don’t hear back from you within a couple of days after that, I’ll draw another name.

I wish I could give you all a copy!

The giveaway is closed. Congratulations to Kitty and Sarah!

Laudable Linkage

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Laudable Linkage

These are some of the posts that stood out to me this week:

Israel at War: Prayers, Hope, and Heartache. Some good prayer points during this time of upheaval.

A Well-Stocked Pantry, HT to Challies. “It’s not a question of if storms will come—storms will come for us, and we need to be ready with a soul packed tightly with God’s Word so we can draw on it in a time of need.”

Add a Little Extra Beauty. “God loves to add a little extra beauty. God could have made every time of day the same, but he gives sunrises—he adds a little extra beauty.”

The Secret to Abundant Life: Expressing Self-Love through Service. I’m not fond of the title, but the article is good.

How to Be a Growing Christian. This was a good message by Adrian Rogers I heard part of while making a late breakfast one morning. I was especially struck by the part about the middle of the sermon discussing the apostle John–what he was as an early disciple compared to what he was later as a gospel and epistle writer. The link goes to the overview, outline, and then transcript of the message, but if you’d rather listen than read, you can do that here.

The Transforming Power of Hopeful Love in Marriage, HT to Challies. Thoughts on what 1 Corinthians 13 means when it says love “hopes all things.” Good for any relationships, not just marriage.

Biblical Hope When It’s Time to Consider Residential Care. “You’ve got a decision to make about someone you love. You want to serve sacrificially. You want to do the ‘right thing.’ You want to honor God. As you move forward, let God’s Word illuminate your path, one tender and needy step at a time.”

We tend to use prayer as a last resort,
but God wants it to be our first line of defense.
We pray when there’s nothing else we can do,
but God wants us to pray
before we do anything at all.
—Oswald Chambers

Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

It’s a deliciously cool morning. I love this cool autumn phase before the cold of winter sets in. We still haven’t seen a lot of fall color in our area, but I trust we will before the leaves disappear. Meanwhile, life goes on, and every week has good things if we look for them. Here are some of mine that I’m sharing with you and Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

1. My husband. Though I always appreciate him, he outdid himself this week. When he runs Saturday morning errands, he’ll often stop by the store for the handful of items on my running list on the refrigerator. This last Saturday, I had quite a lot listed and had planned to go to the store myself in the afternoon. He’ll do the full grocery shopping sometimes, but I hate to ask him when he’s had a full week of work plus other tasks. But he took care of my whole list. Then he got my autumn decorations down from the attic for me. He ran the cleaning cycle on our oven and wiped up the layer of ash that leaves on the oven walls. And one morning when he was out early, he brought me a Chick-Fil-A biscuit.

2. Evenings with the family. Jason and Mittu texted one day that they had gotten some tilapia and offered to come to our house to make and share it and some salad. I had some frozen loaded potato skins to offer as a side. Then Jim suggested we make s’mores on the patio with a little tabletop “oven” he had. It was a fun night. Another night, we watched Timothy while Jason and Mittu went out, and Mittu put together homemade pizza before she left.

Making s'mores

3. Out-of-the-ordinary food. Besides the ones already mentioned, I made chicken and dumplings one night. I don’t often because it’s a little involved, plus makes a lot for just the two of us. (I don’t make it for the whole family because Mittu and Timothy are gluten-intolerant. I’ve wondered if the dumplings would hold up with GF flour.) One cool night, chicken and dumplings seemed like just the thing. I made a half-recipe, and it was still a lot, but we’ve almost finished it off.

Chicken and dumplings

Then one morning, I wanted something different for breakfast besides my usual weekday oatmeal and indulged in some French toast.

And I used the Crumbl gift card received on my birthday and indulged in their Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookie. So good!

4. A new great grand nephew, the first of a new generation. I had to look online to see what my husband’s niece’s son’s child would be called in relation to us. 🙂

5. A Hobby Lobby excursion to me is like a kid’s outing at a park. 🙂 I needed some fall stems, scrapbooking paper, and a few other items, and had a gift card to get them with.

6. Bonus: Off-season clothes readily available. I used to keep them in boxes and felt I needed to wash them out before putting them in the closet. Now they’re down the hall in the guest room closet, and it’s easy to garb them when needed.

What are some good things from your week?

Writing Pet Peeves

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Pet peeves in writing

I mentioned a writing pet peeve in a recent book review, and some were curious about it. I have more than one. 🙂 So I thought I’d share them and see if others thought the same as I do.

Let me say first that I am an avid reader and love books and authors. I have great respect for authors, especially while trying to become one myself and seeing what’s involved.

I know writing is hard work. Plus we’re only human, and typos and grammar errors and other mistakes will filter through no matter how many people edit a manuscript.

But I share these in the hopes that any author who sees them will take them as constructive and not nit-picky criticism. I’m avoiding grammar and punctuation issues because there are tons of articles about those.

Conversations left hanging. Character A asks a question, and before Character B answers, the author fills in a lot of description, explanation, or backstory. A sentence or two is fine, but sometimes it feels the characters are just standing there in awkward silence waiting for the narrator to finish. In the book review I mentioned, the character wasn’t conversing but was asked to step up and give her presentation. Then there were seven paragraphs, partly backstory, partly description of the room and people, before the character spoke. The point of view was from this character, so it felt like her audience was just waiting and watching while all these thoughts ran through her mind before she spoke.

Characters with similar names. One book I read had a Kari and a Kali–a difference of only one letter. In another (from one of my favorite authors), two characters had two-syllable names that started with “Sh” or “Sch” and ended with “field.” One was a good guy and one was a bad guy. I had to keep going back to the first few chapters to remind myself which was which.

Describing multiple reactions at once. Sometimes I’ll see a character’s reaction or expressions with multiple adjectives: for example, “Her pale blue eyes reflected sorrow, grace, and fear.” First, this seems like telling, not showing. Second, how does anyone show that all at once? I could understand surprise turning to fear or something like that, but not several different emotions simultaneously.

Foreign phrases without translation, even common Latin ones. Sometimes you can get the gist of what is meant by the context, but it still takes the reader out of the story if they have to puzzle over an unfamiliar phrase. It does help that you can highlight a word or phrase in the Kindle app and get the translation. But that still takes the reader out of the narrative for a bit.

Overly technical terms. I was very disappointed in a recent article about counseling which used words like “vivify.” We’re often told in writing instruction not to use words the average person wouldn’t know. I got dinged on a manuscript critique for writing “in the midst” and “portend.” I was told, “You wouldn’t say, ‘I was in the midst of. . . ‘” But I say that all the time. This can be a little difficult because a word we think is common might be unfamiliar to others. But generally we need to consider the audience and avoid academic or technical terms (except, perhaps, in science fiction where the term is going to be explained).

Overused plot devices. It’s okay if a character learns vital information by eavesdropping on a conversation, but that shouldn’t happen repeatedly in the same story.

Overused plots. I’ve read that there are only a handful of storylines, and all the books written reuse them in different ways. That may be true. But it seems that a lot of books will have the same basic plot at one time. Lately I’ve seen a lot of books where the main female character has to go back to her hometown or estranged family for some reason (usually the illness or death of a parent) and encounters the boyfriend she left behind.

Giving modern sensibilities to historical characters. It took hundreds of years for society to come to certain understandings.

Modern phrases or slang in historical fiction. I know many historical fiction writers who diligently research language usage in their time period, so there are sources to check for that kind of thing.

Inaccuracy in spiritual truths. One author fussed with me when I said in a review that her book was inaccurate in its partial sharing of the gospel. She dismissed sharing the whole gospel in a book because, she said, one would have to write at a fifth grade level to do so. I’ve read a lot of Christian fiction over the last 40+ years, and I’ve seen the gospel explained in a tasteful and natural way. That’s supposed to be part of the Christian life, so it’s not being “preachy” to explain the gospel.

I agree that not every Christian book calls for a full gospel presentation. It depends on the type of story and characters and the author’s purpose. A Christian story doesn’t require that someone become a Christian during the plot. Often it’s the Christian characters who need to learn or grow in the story. But what is there concerning the gospel or any other spiritual truth should be accurate and not misleading. I go into this more in The Gospel and Christian Fiction.

Probably the inaccuracy I see most is when Christian characters urge a non-Christian to just start praying or doing Christian things, as if they’ll eventually become a Christian that way.

Older books re-released under new titles. It’s maddening when you buy a new book from a favorite author only to realize you read it a long time ago under a different title.

How about you? Do you share any of these pet peeves or do you have others? I’d love to hear them, but please frame them constructively and kindly. Also, I’d like to avoid grammar and punctuation issues in this discussion.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

How do we share God with a world that doesn’t want to hear?

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How can we share God with a world that doesn't want to hear

Our ladies’ Bible study is going through 1 John. John circles through several different themes throughout His letter.

One of those themes concerns false teachers and the unwillingness of the world to hear God’s truth.

  • Chapter 4 warns us about false prophets and tells us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”
  • In chapter 3, verse 13, John said, “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.”
  • Then in 4:1-6, John says the people who follow the “spirit of the antichrist” will not listen to us.

Back in his gospel, John recorded Jesus as saying, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours” (15:18-20).

It’s helpful to take a moment to consider the Bible’s different uses of the word “world”:

There’s the physical world: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3, KJV).

There’s the world of people. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Then there’s the world system that sets itself against God. “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:14). This system is led by “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). It’s this meaning of “world” that is indicated in John 2, where he tells us “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

What do we do when the world desperately needs the gospel, but doesn’t want to hear it?

My initial reaction is to pull back and not bother them.

But what does Paul say in Romans 1:16? “ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The gospel itself has power to open people’s eyes. to convict them of their need.

Psalm 119:130 says, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”

God’s Word is powerful.

We don’t share God’s truth like a club, beating people over the head with it. But we share it in faith and love, planting and watering seeds, trusting God to bring them to fruition.

When I was in college, God brought to our church a new family who quickly became my “spiritual family.” I’ve written before of Mrs. C., who became a mentor to me long before that word became so popular. Mr. C. told one time of taking a girl home from an activity when he was a young man. The girl was a Christian and tried to talk to him about the Lord. He blew up at her. But just after dropping her off, he thought, “What was she talking about, anyway?” Though he reacted negatively, God used what this girl said to spark an interest which eventually led to his salvation. I don’t know if she ever knew that. She probably thought the encounter was a failure.

Of course, there are times to pull back. Peter tells wives of unbelieving husbands, “be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct” (1 Peter 3:1-2). He goes on to encourage them to “let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (verse 4).

We can’t nag people into the kingdom. But our lives can demonstrate His beauty and grace.

We also share His truth with our love. “No one has ever seen God,” John writes (1 John 4:12). So how do we show them an invisible God? He goes on to say, “if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

How do we share God with a world that doesn’t want to hear?

We share His Word, kindly and graciously, as He gives opportunity, trusting Him to shed light in the hearer’s heart.

We demonstrate a godly character.

And we show His love.

That’s what Jesus did, isn’t it? “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He loved us before we were ready to hear, when we still wanted to cling to our sins instead of turning to Him. He patiently kept drawing us, though we spurned Him so many times, until He finally won us over. “I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love” (Hosea 11:4, NKJV).

Sharing God’s truth may bring a negative reaction at first, as Mr. C. blew up at His companion, as people have persecuted God’s representatives through the centuries, as they mistreated and killed Jesus Himself. But even while Jesus was being tortured and murdered, His death was atoning for His persecutors.

If people persist in not believing God, eventually He will leave them alone. C. S. Lewis has said, “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.'”

But while we can, as much as we can, let’s share His light.

The entrance of God's Word gives light and understanding

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

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Laudable Links from around the Web

I’m a bit behind in my blog reading, but here are some of the thought-provoking posts found this week:

Crowned, HT to Challies. On being a grandparent: “This is miles apart from mothering. At first blush, you would not think so: filling sippy cups, opening snacks, picking up toys, readying baths, reading books, kissing those chunky cheeks, swinging, collecting rocks, frolicking, and singing.”

Your Faithfulness Affects Us All: A Plea to Empty Nesters to Continue to Pursue Their Marriages, HT to Challies. “The problems that are often swept under the rug while the kids are at home have a nasty way of coming back with a vengeance after the kids have left the home. The call to pursue your husband or wife is just as crucial three or five decades into marriage as it is in the first couple of decades of your covenant. Here are three ways to pursue faithfulness in marriage during your empty nest years.”

How to Get the Most Out of Your Pastor’s Preaching. “Do you ever find yourself: Waking up on Sunday morning and wishing you didn’t have to go to church? Having a hard time staying awake in church? Daydreaming during the message, or making a mental ‘to-do’ list while the pastor is preaching?”

Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. “Raechel and Amanda reflected on where in their lives they are seeing beauty, goodness, and truth, and challenged their listeners to consider that too. As I thought about that question, I was surprised by how much it encouraged me.”

3 Times You Should Disobey Authority, HT to Challies. “What are the limits to our moral obligation to submit when someone possesses an ostensibly legitimate authority over us, like a parent over a child? Certainly there are limits. Remember, no human authority is absolute. Authority is always relative to the assignment given by the Authority Giver.”

5 Things at the Heart of a Pastoral Visit, HT to Challies. “Pastoral visitation is a powerful means of spiritual encouragement and a tangible demonstration of the love of Christ to his people. . . . While I have written before about the benefits of visitation to the life and work of a Pastor, this post will seek to lay bare some of the basic principles of visitation which could be of help to those on the receiving end of it.”

George Muller quote

Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

We’re a week into October already. Leaves have started changing and falling, but we haven’t seen full autumn color yet. We should in the next week or two! Meanwhile, I am rejoicing in cool mornings and evenings. Here are a few other reasons for rejoicing this week, and sharing with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Being treated to dinner out with new friends. A couple at church invited us out to eat, and we enjoyed getting to know them better.

2. Care group meeting. The church we’ve been attending divides up into smaller care groups, each under an elder. We knew they had them but didn’t really know how they operated or where or with whom. But someone invited us to theirs, which meets every other week, usually in the elder’s home. It’s mainly a way to get to know each other in a smaller group setting, share prayer requests, etc. And have snacks. 🙂

3. A free (sort of) car wash. Jim took my car in to be serviced, get the oil changed, etc., and was offered a free car wash. I’m sure the price was incorporated into service fee, as it seemed rather high. But that’s all the more reason to take advantage of it.

4. A good movie. Last night we watched A Million Miles Away, about Jose Hernandez, who as a child worked with his migrant parents in various fields and grew up to fulfill his dream of becoming an astronaut.

5. Days at home. Though I enjoyed the social encounters over the weekend, I was very glad to spend most of the rest of the week at home with no out-of-the-ordinary outings. I’m not one who can go-go-go a lot.

I hope you’ve had a good week as well!

Review: Aftermath

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Aftermath, a suspense novel by Terri Blackstock

Terri Blackstock’s novel, Aftermath, opens with three young women at their favorite band’s concert. As the Libertarian political candidate the band was opening for came to the podium, an explosion rocked the stage area. Only one of the girls, Taylor, makes it out alive.

Just minutes after the explosion, policemen pull aside Dustin Webb’s car. They ask to search his trunk, and, having nothing to hide, he agrees. He’s shocked to see plastics for explosives in his trunk. He insists he doesn’t know how they got there and he didn’t put them there. The officers don’t believe him. They got an anonymous tip that he was the bomber, he worked with bombs in the Army, and his security company had a client which had explosives stolen from them. Everything adds up to Dustin being involved in the bombing.

Desperate, Dustin calls a friend from his past, Jamie Powell. She was the only person who believed in him when she lived next door. Perhaps she’ll believe in him now. They haven’t spoken since he went into the Army, but she’s a lawyer now, and he needs a good one.

Jamie drops everything to help Dustin. She has to fight for the right to represent him with the partners of her firm, who fear the repercussions of defending a suspected terrorist.

Meanwhile, Taylor’s fragile recovery from OCD is threatened by the tragedy she underwent. Despite seeing her psychiatrist, starting a new medicine, and being watched over by her sister, Taylor’s grief and guilt over not staying behind to help her friends escalates her symptoms. She feels the only way she can set things right is to find who did this.

I don’t often read suspense novels, but Terri is a master of them. This one had me on the edge of my seat, yet every character drew my sympathy. The faith element is clear and natural and not heavy-handed. If you like suspense—and even if you don’t—I think you would enjoy this book.