New Fiction - Rick's Picks

At lunch today, a colleague and I discussed what we were reading. Rick waxed so eloquent about two new fiction books he had just finished that I immediately asked him to send me reviews for today's post. His comments certainly piqued my interest.

Title: The Galilean Secret
Author: Evan Drake Howard

"This is a book that combines historical fiction with Biblical history, mixed with a contemporary suspense and romance thriller. That may sound confusing, but it's a fairly straight forward plot, so a serious reader will have no problem keeping everything straight. It also carries a specific theological viewpoint that I found fascinating. It is paced evenly enough so that you are not bogged down in historical detail, nor reeling from the shifts between the first and twenty-first century. I expected to find some aspects of the story that were suspect from a biblical perspective, but Howard steers away from this and gives us the history from a very solid, evangelical perspective. The "secret" is not something that really exists, but if it did, it would only reinforce the power of the New Testament. Over-all - a great read!"


Title: Back on Murder
Author: J. Mark Bertrand

"This is a murder mystery novel that is several notches above the average for characterization and plot-line. The main character is a deeply wounded police detective who solves, in his path to redemption, a whole series of inter-related murders. It has a gritty, but very human "feel", accented with an understated humor and a wonderful way of helping you to really live inside the head of the detective. It is not awash with blood and gore, but it does portray a very brutal series of crimes. It was an absorbing book!"