Book Review: The Newsmakers, by Lis Wiehl

Engaging book. Nylan Hastings, owner of Global News Network (GNN), is intent on dominating the world of news. To that end, he is looking for a "star" who can be the face of GNN. Greg Underwood has uncovered Erica, currently working at a small town New Hampshire station. She is exactly what Nylan wants — young, beautiful, resourceful, anxious to get ahead, intelligent — and she is hired.

Her first assignment is a rare interview with the Duches of Cambridge. But, as she is setting up the interview, there is a horrific ferry crash in view of her cameras. Erica's coverage of that crash makes her an instant celebrity.

Erica's second major catch is an interview with the likely next President of the US, Kay Barrish … who suddenly dies in the midst of the interview and on live TV. Erica's heroic attempts to revive her boost her ratings to the top.

But, something isn't right about all of this. Odd things begin to happen in the office; there are nagging questions about the ferry crash — perhaps it wasn't the result of external terrorist activity; why would a perfectly healthy Presidential candidate suddenly die; seemingly random deaths begin to appear to have some connections. Erica begins to wonder if she is being manipulated for some hidden purpose.

Wieh does a good job of keeping the suspense high, giving just enough information to keep the reader guessing. It's not hard to figure out who the real evil figure is, but who are Erica's friends? There are moments when the dialogue and events are rather cliche-ish — Greg and Erica have been to dinner and a sudden rain chases them into a tight shelter.

The thing that I found very annoying was Wiehl's use of the present tense throughout the book. It makes logical sense, but somehow the story doesn't flow nearly as well.

Though advertised as Christian fiction, there is little really Christian about it. Erica whispers the "Serenity Prayer" on a few occasions. Some of the things that Erica does verge on New Age practices. Erica has a troubled past and wrestles with strongholds in her life. That makes the book more real but she wins by the sheer force of her will, not by help from the Holy Spirit — and sometimes she succumbs to temptation. Read this book as a good fiction story with well-defined evil but rather flawed good. I enjoyed it very much, but it's not a primer on "The Normal Christian Life" (book by Watchman Nee).

(DISCLAIMER: I received a free copy of The Newsmakers from the publisher as a part of their bloggers' book review programme, BookLook Bloggers. I was free to write the review I thought the book deserved and received no compensation apart from continued participation in the programme.)

Book Review: Critical Condition

I'm a fan of Richard Mabry's books. Critical Condition is the fifth one I've read — somehow I missed Heart Failure, but I'll rectify that — and it was not a disappointment. The book will be released on 15 April 2014.

Shannon Frasier, first year medical student, witnesses the shooting death of her fiancé, Todd, and is helpless to help him. Ten years later, as a surgeon in a Dallas hospital, another man is shot and killed in her front yard and she is, again, powerless to help him.

Shannon, her recovering addict sister, Megan, and her almost-fiancé, Mark, get tangled in a bank robbery/murder case. In the midst of all of this, Shanon struggles with her weakened faith in God.

As always, Mabry's medical/murder mystery compelled me to finish. His characters are real, struggling with daily issues of stress, faith, fallenness, doubt. I like and appreciate the fact that Mabry's does not resort to foul language or to sex scenes to "enhance" (tongue-in-cheek) his stories. Even though two of the main characters are doctors, the storyline itself is only tangentially related to the medical profession.

While this was a really good read, there are weaknesses in the plot. Shannon, Mark, and Megan's interferences in the investigation would probably have earned them serious trouble in real life. I sincerely hope that the Dallas police would have taken the threats against Shannon's life more seriously than the story portrays. Some things that seemed weak in the first half of the book made sense later (I won't detail to avoid spoilers).

Shannon's struggles with her own doubts about God may seem trite to non-believers, its a very real struggle for many believers -- how to reconcile one's belief in a loving God with difficulties and evil in daily life. Once again, I highly recommend Mabry's books.

(DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of Critical Condition free from the publisher as a participant in their Book Look Bloggers program. However, I was free to write the review that I believed the book deserved. My only compensation is continued participation in the review program.)

Book Review: "Stress Test" by Richard Mabry

Life is good for Dr. Matt Newman. He has finished his last day in private practice. He's ready to start a new job tomorrow as an assistant professor of surgery at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas — less stress, more regular hours, time for a life, and a happier girlfriend. As he walks out of Metropolitan Hospital after an emergency call and gets to his car in a deserted part of the hospital's parking garage, he's suddenly attacked, bound with duct tape, tossed in the trunk of his car, and driven off to his certain demise. When he escapes, Detective Grimes doesn't believe his kidnapping story but goes after Dr. Newman for the murder of Cara Mendiola, an IT technician at Metropolitan found dead in the trunk of his car. Defense attorney, Sandra Murray, takes his case but life goes downhill fast for Dr. Newman.

This is how Richard Mabry begins his most recent medical mystery. I've read 3 of 4 of his medical mystery series, Prescription for Trouble, and enjoyed every one of them. Stress Test was equally enjoyable. Mabry's treatment of the characters was consistent — if they had been actors, one would say they stayed in character. He does a good job of intertwining the lives of the characters to introduce some internal as well as interpersonal tension. For example, Ms. Murray has just broken off a relationship with Dr. Ken Gordon because he doesn't share her faith in God. She has concluded that all doctors are probably like Dr. Gordon — so wed to science that they can't have faith in God. Dr. Gordon becomes Dr. Newman's neurosurgeon when Dr. Newman suffers a serious head injury in his kidnapping. And, Ms. Murray not only takes Dr. Newman's case, she begins to be emotionally attached to him.

While Mabry keeps his characters in character, they are sometimes a bit shallow. For instance, it seems unlikely that someone like Ms. Murray, who is very good as a defense lawyer, would jump to the conclusion that all doctors were faithless just because Dr. Gordon wanted nothing to do with religion.

This is a "Christian mystery" so references to faith and God should come as no surprise. These elements are believable and portrayed as normal facets of life for the characters. Some might question Ms. Murray's breaking off of the relationship with Dr. Gordon because of his unbelief as odd, but it's not odd in the Christian world. Dr. Newman's faith grows throughout the story. Other characters have to confront their own lack of faith as the story progresses.

There were some plot quirks. For instance, near the end of the book, Mabry has Detective Ames saying that a certain deputy sheriff probably called the police dispatcher. She speculates that Detective Grimes had alerted the dispatcher to let him know about any calls related to Dr. Newman. However, just one screen later, Detective Ames says that the police got lucky because the deputy sheriff called the detective division rather than the police dispatcher.

All in all, this was worth reading.

There were some interface errors in the Kindle edition. Navigating to "Go to...Beginning" took me to the author's page at the very end of the book. Neither Kindle's X-Ray function nor real page numbers were enabled — perhaps that's because I was reading a review copy from the publisher but the X-Ray function, especially, would have been helpful.

Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. See http://cmp.ly/1