by Jason Joyner | Jul 14, 2010 | Blog, books, CBA, fiction, reviews
I’ve talked in the last couple of posts about Robin Parrish and his latest novel, Nightmare, a paranormal suspense that has mostly glowing reviews with a couple of people giving a polite cough and wondering if it belongs in “Christian fiction.”
I wonder if a similar situation will occur with the latest
CFBA book tour feature:
Back on Murder by J. Mark Bertrand.
Back on Murder is the first in a series about Houston homicide detective Roland March. The book starts off on a note that doesn’t bode well for keeping a series going: “I’m on the way out.”
March has been a star detective in the past, but events personal and private have sapped him and pushed him to the periphery of his department. Now he handles the garbage cases no one wants, like the bait-and-switch “Cars for Criminals” program and investigating suicides within the department.
When the pretty blonde daughter of a prominent Houston televangelist goes missing, it captures all of the media attention. March ends up helping with a case flying under the radar, a gangbanger murder that seems like a typical hit. This last gasp gives him one last chance, and when he notices signs of something more at the crime scene, he is given a lifeline.
As he chases down leads others disregard, he starts to suspect a connection in these unrelated cases. March maneuvers the politics of the police department, weathers a hurricane along with the turmoil in his personal life, and tries to piece together the disparate clues to see if he can get “back on murder.”
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J. Mark Bertrand is an author I interacted with on prior writing sites. He is a deep thinker and appreciates quality writing and a artistic use of language. He constantly challenged our group on what it means to write Christian fiction. Therefore I was very intrigued to read his first solo book (he co-authored a romantic suspense with Deeann Gist,
Beguiled).
I linked Nightmare and Back on Murder because they represent new frontiers in Christian/CBA fiction, not because they are very similar. They both take risks that may make some readers a little uncomfortable.
Mark talks in a
guest post at Forensics and Faith how he took risks with his book. Some of it is technique: he tells the book in a first person/present tense point of view. We see the events as Roland March ex
periences them, without a past tense introspection or other viewpoints that lets us see what is occurring elsewhere. The other risk is that there is a lot of ambiguity with the book. March is not a Christian, but he interacts with people from the
megachurch as they search for the missing daughter. Bertrand doesn’t shy away from subtle critique through March’s viewpoint, but he doesn’t preach through it.
So what about the story? It is a bit of a slow burn. It builds up carefully at first. There was enough to whet my appetite, but at times the action isn’t moving along as fast as a popcorn-special-effects cop flick. There is a little perseverance require to get the payoff as different threads slowly weave together. Mark does a good job of keeping some cards hidden for a long time, like the personal trauma that affects Roland in his marriage and work. The first third of the book suffers a little drag at times, but again, there is a rich and exciting ride that follows. The ending keeps the reader guessing, and there is a wrap-up on most points while leaving some questions hang for another book.
The characters are quite deep. Roland March has a voice that seems very authentic for a jaded detective. Other characters are fleshed out convincingly, and there are shades of grey all around. It isn’t a book where the bad guys twist mustaches or the good guys wear white hats. There’s a lot to plumb out of these flawed people.
How does it push the boundaries of the
CBA? Well, there is no clear-cut declaration of faith (which isn’t AS edgy anymore.) I’m not a big reader of detective mysteries, but it gives a realistic view of life as a detective with the grittiness intact. Faith interacts with the story, but it isn’t always pretty. Still, Mark does a great job looking at some modern Evangelical flaws without cynacism.
I think the biggest push is that the book isn’t neat and tidy. Hard things happen, the miracles aren’t always apparent, but hope is not lost. I think it has a distinctive voice that is unlike most CBA books.
This is where Nightmare and Back on Murder come back together. In reading reviews on Amazon (in general) I get the feeling a lot of CBA readers like uplifting tales that show life that is a little too polished. Everything gets a happy ending. There are certainly places for those type of books, but if you like a book that examines real life (BoM) or examines the supernatural what-ifs (Nightmare), then the good news is that CBA continues to evolve.
To sum up: Back on Murder asks a little investment, and in return you get a distinctive book that entertains and offers up scenarios that are thoughtful, without the author telling you what to think. I really enjoyed the book, and I will be looking forward to book two, Pattern of Wounds. As I said, this isn’t my typical genre, but Mark Bertand has earned my interest – and you would do well to check it out!
If you want to check out the first chapter of
Back On Murder, go
HERE.
Finally, I have a few more thoughts on Christian/CBA fiction that I’ll hopefully address tomorrow. I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts on BoM or books in general.
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by Jason Joyner | Jun 1, 2010 | Blog, CFBA, fiction, reviews, suspense
I barely missed finishing Travis Thrasher’s latest book, Broken, in time for the CFBA Tour for last week. Here’s my take on the book.
Synopsis:
Laila Torres is a beautiful woman on the outside, by anyone’s standards. Inside she is tormented by choices she has made in the past, and she keeps everyone outside of a shell she has constructed as she tries to run from her past. Holed up in Greenville, South Carolina, working in an inconspicuous job, she is found by a stranger who knows things about her past.
As this stalker haunts her, leaving threatening messages, she starts seeing visions of a dead man. And something more, buried even deeper in the wasteland of her history. Even as a co-worker tries to peel back some of her layers, and her brother tries to track down his long-lost sister, the risks may be too deep for any of them to overcome.
Review:
Nebulous. From Merrian-Webster Online: “lacking clarity of feature or sharpness of outline.” That is the one word that describes Broken the best. Thrasher is staking a claim to the suspense/horror side of Christian fiction. I know other writers that really enjoy his work. As for me, not as much.
There is plenty of building of tension in Broken, and there are some intriguing twists along the way. Laila has a complicated past, so Travis pulls back the layers ever so slowly. This leads to the problem of being nebulous – the book takes too long to develop. By the time I found out certain things that drove along Laila and even other characters, I was reading the book more for obligation than for enjoyment. In trying to keep the mystery hidden, it ends up obscured.
There is some touching resolution towards the end, and I did enjoy that. Some of the circumstances Laila faced did catch my interest to see how she escaped. Still, too much was veiled and strung along by “something in her past is spooking her” throughout the book.
I haven’t really connected with Travis Thrasher’s books in the past, so I think I’ll stop trying. For another point of view, check out my friend Nicole’s take on Broken at her blog, Into the Fire.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I’d like to thank Faith Words Publishers for providing me this Book free as part of the CFBA book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
by Jason Joyner | Jun 1, 2010 | Blog, CFBA, fiction, reviews, suspense
I barely missed finishing Travis Thrasher’s latest book, Broken, in time for the CFBA Tour for last week. Here’s my take on the book.
Synopsis:
Laila Torres is a beautiful woman on the outside, by anyone’s standards. Inside she is tormented by choices she has made in the past, and she keeps everyone outside of a shell she has constructed as she tries to run from her past. Holed up in Greenville, South Carolina, working in an inconspicuous job, she is found by a stranger who knows things about her past.
As this stalker haunts her, leaving threatening messages, she starts seeing visions of a dead man. And something more, buried even deeper in the wasteland of her history. Even as a co-worker tries to peel back some of her layers, and her brother tries to track down his long-lost sister, the risks may be too deep for any of them to overcome.
Review:
Nebulous. From Merrian-Webster Online: “lacking clarity of feature or sharpness of outline.” That is the one word that describes Broken the best. Thrasher is staking a claim to the suspense/horror side of Christian fiction. I know other writers that really enjoy his work. As for me, not as much.
There is plenty of building of tension in Broken, and there are some intriguing twists along the way. Laila has a complicated past, so Travis pulls back the layers ever so slowly. This leads to the problem of being nebulous – the book takes too long to develop. By the time I found out certain things that drove along Laila and even other characters, I was reading the book more for obligation than for enjoyment. In trying to keep the mystery hidden, it ends up obscured.
There is some touching resolution towards the end, and I did enjoy that. Some of the circumstances Laila faced did catch my interest to see how she escaped. Still, too much was veiled and strung along by “something in her past is spooking her” throughout the book.
I haven’t really connected with Travis Thrasher’s books in the past, so I think I’ll stop trying. For another point of view, check out my friend Nicole’s take on Broken at her blog, Into the Fire.
—
Disclosure of Material Connection: I’d like to thank Faith Words Publishers for providing me this Book free as part of the CFBA book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
by Jason Joyner | May 29, 2010 | Blog, CFBA, fiction, suspense
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Broken
FaithWords (May 25, 2010)
by
Travis Thrasher
Jason says: I’m almost done with this, so I’ll finish with a review later.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
It was during third grade after a teacher encouraged him in his writing and as he read through The Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis that Travis decided he wanted to be a writer. The dream never left him, and allowed him to fulfill that dream of writing fulltime in 2007.
Travis Thrasher is the author of numerous works of fiction, including his most personal and perhaps his deepest work, Sky Blue, that was published in summer of 2007. This year he has two novels published, Out of the Devil’s Mouth, and a supernatural thriller, Isolation.
Travis is married to Sharon and they are the proud parents of Kylie, born in November, 2006, and Hailey, a Shih-Tzu that looks like an Ewok. They live in suburban Chicago.
Stop by and visit Travis at his Blog where you can sign up to follow him on Facebook and Twitter!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Laila had it all–love, family, wealth, and faith. But when her faith crumbles, her world falls apart and Laila finds herself living an empty, dangerous life as a call girl in Chicago.
When she is threatened, Laila shoots and kills a client in self-defense, sending herself into a spiral of guilt and emptiness. Six months later, she is trying to move on, but she’s haunted by the past. She hasn’t told anyone about the man she killed, and she’s still estranged from her family.
When she is approached by a stranger who says he knows what she did, Laila has no choice but to run. But the stranger stays close behind, and Laila begins having visions of the man she killed. Little does she know she’s being hounded by something not of this world, something that knows her deepest, darkest secret.
Scared and wandering, will Laila regain her trust in God to protect her from these demons? Or will her plea for salvation come too late?
If you would like to read the first chapter of Broken, go HERE.
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by Jason Joyner | May 29, 2010 | Blog, CFBA, fiction, suspense
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Broken
FaithWords (May 25, 2010)
by
Travis Thrasher
Jason says: I’m almost done with this, so I’ll finish with a review later.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
It was during third grade after a teacher encouraged him in his writing and as he read through The Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis that Travis decided he wanted to be a writer. The dream never left him, and allowed him to fulfill that dream of writing fulltime in 2007.
Travis Thrasher is the author of numerous works of fiction, including his most personal and perhaps his deepest work, Sky Blue, that was published in summer of 2007. This year he has two novels published, Out of the Devil’s Mouth, and a supernatural thriller, Isolation.
Travis is married to Sharon and they are the proud parents of Kylie, born in November, 2006, and Hailey, a Shih-Tzu that looks like an Ewok. They live in suburban Chicago.
Stop by and visit Travis at his Blog where you can sign up to follow him on Facebook and Twitter!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Laila had it all–love, family, wealth, and faith. But when her faith crumbles, her world falls apart and Laila finds herself living an empty, dangerous life as a call girl in Chicago.
When she is threatened, Laila shoots and kills a client in self-defense, sending herself into a spiral of guilt and emptiness. Six months later, she is trying to move on, but she’s haunted by the past. She hasn’t told anyone about the man she killed, and she’s still estranged from her family.
When she is approached by a stranger who says he knows what she did, Laila has no choice but to run. But the stranger stays close behind, and Laila begins having visions of the man she killed. Little does she know she’s being hounded by something not of this world, something that knows her deepest, darkest secret.
Scared and wandering, will Laila regain her trust in God to protect her from these demons? Or will her plea for salvation come too late?
If you would like to read the first chapter of Broken, go HERE.
—
by Jason Joyner | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog, characters, CSFF, fiction, writing craft
Heya!
If you missed it or didn’t find it interesting, I encourage you to check out last week’s posts on the book Lost Mission. At least for those of us on the blog tour, there was a lot of deep discussion over themes brought up from the book.
A couple of posts got me thinking about our characters when writing fiction. One reviewer didn’t like the book because they thought some characters were promoting paganism. Now, this is more of a thematic issue they had with the book, but I commented on their post that the book wasn’t promoting paganism, but that the characters were acting according to who they were. The blogger didn’t agree with my assessment, and we agreed to disagree.
Another blogger wanted a character to turn to her Bible to get guidance and figure out what should be done. Certainly it would be ideal if everyone did that, and it would have made sense since the character was devout. I know I dive deeper into my Bible when in trouble, but it may not have served the story and the climiax that was building.
After these two comments came up, it got me thinking that perhaps in Christian fiction we subconsciously want the characters we read about to be “sanitized”. I’m not saying these two commenters wanted this specifically, but my impression was maybe we do want this a little more than we realize.
Of course the type of book is going to drive what type of characters populate it. Lost Mission focused on five characters, four of whom would be considered devout, so I wouldn’t expect rough behavior or language. Still, I think authors can struggle with making a character authentic due to a fear of offending a CBA reader.
There’s also been some blog discussion about the homogenized Christianity seen in a lot of Christian fiction. The believers tend to be from a Protestant, non-denominational “Bible” type church, without distinctive doctrines such as speaking in tongues, high liturgical services, or other significant identifiers (that don’t break the core orthodoxy of the Trinity, the Bible, salvation, etc.). Catholics or people who may be a little less mainstream don’t make it as the examples of a Christian character.
I think this goes back to market forces. The CBA market (it used to stand for Christian Booksellers Association, but now is a term for the specific niche fiction one typically finds in an Evangelical bookstore) is particular and doesn’t like certain feathers ruffled. We can have serial killers in CBA fiction, as long as they don’t cuss and sleep around. We also don’t want the Pew Wars extend into our fiction.
Now the clean-mouthed assassin is a blatant example, but I wonder if we expect too much from our CBA characters. Authors know they have a certain audience to please, and perhaps the edges are knocked off a bit. As I flail away at my work in progress, I did a character bio sheet to help me know my heroine better. One questioned asked about sexual experience. My first instinct is to say, “No, she has been chaste.” Unfortunately, in our modern world it would be unrealistic to have an attractive, secular college student be a virgin, so I have to concede that she has had premarital sex. It likely won’t come up in the story, so I get a dodge there, but I think my initial reaction is telling.
What say you?
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