Tag Archives: Paul McCusker

Top 10 Tuesday — Nightmare Scenarios

31 Oct

Happy Halloween! Today’s TTT topic is a Halloween Freebie. While some might find zombies, vampires, and werewolves frightening, I find books that present chillingly realistic plots truly scary! So today I give you novels with scenarios that just might induce nightmares — cyber attacks, pandemics, lab accidents, AI gone wrong, terrorists. I hope you find one that will send shivers down your spine. 😉

For more Halloween-themed TTTs, check out That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Nightmare Scenarios

26 Below by Kimberly Woodhouse

In her new role as Emergency Operations Center director for Fairbanks, Alaska, Darcie Phillips prevents disasters. But none of her training can prepare her for the terror that’s coming. 

As a cybersecurity specialist, Jason Myers is determined to ferret out any threats to the town he now calls home–and that includes his reckless brother and his ecoterrorist friends.

When an old woman’s wild prediction–widespread destruction as soon as the Fairbanks temperature falls to 26 below–hits national headlines, neither Darcie nor Jason sees a real risk to anything but tourism.

Then the bodies start dropping.

Darcie is relying on her experience and intelligence to stop a killer; Jason is relying on God to guide the way. They’ll have to work together to find the truth and prevent their Alaskan town from becoming a city of nightmares. The first in a thrilling new suspense series from best-selling author Kimberley Woodhouse, 26 Below will delight fans of Lynnette Eason, Irene Hannon, and Lynn Blackburn.

Airborne by DiAnn Mills

Heather Lawrence’s long-awaited vacation to Salzburg wasn’t supposed to go like this. Mere hours into the transatlantic flight, the Houston FBI agent is awakened when passengers begin exhibiting horrific symptoms of an unknown infection. As the virus quickly spreads and dozens of passengers fall ill, Heather fears she’s witnessing an epidemic similar to ones her estranged husband studies for a living ― but this airborne contagion may have been deliberately released.

While Heather remains quarantined with other survivors, she works with her FBI colleagues to identify the person behind this attack. The prime suspect? Dr. Chad Lawrence, an expert in his field . . . and Heather’s husband. The Lawrences’ marriage has been on the rocks since Chad announced his career took precedence over his wife and future family and moved out.

As more victims fall prey days after the initial outbreak, time’s running out to hunt down the killer, one who may be closer to the victims than anyone ever expected.

An Air That Kills by Christine Poulson

The atmosphere in the lab is toxic.

It is only a matter of time before there is a flu pandemic with the potential to kill billions. Or so wealthy entrepreneur Lyle Lynstrum believes. That is why he is funding research into transgenics – the mechanism by which viruses can jump the species barrier — at a high security lab on a tidal island off the North Devon coast.

A suspiciously rapid turnover of staff has him worried. He sends in scientist Katie Flanagan as an undercover lab technician. Something is clearly very wrong, but before Katie can get to the bottom of what is going on, a colleague is struck down by a mysterious illness. 

Has the safety of the facility been compromised, allowing a deadly virus to escape? Katie begins to suspect that the scientists are as deadly as the diseases – and that her cover has been blown.

Then the island is cut off by high seas and a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse begins . . .

Fatal Code by Natalie Walters

In 1964, a group of scientists called the Los Alamos Five came close to finishing a nuclear energy project for the United States government when they were abruptly disbanded. Now the granddaughter of one of those five scientists, aerospace engineer Elinor Mitchell, discovers that she has highly sensitive information on the project in her possession–and a target on her back.

SNAP agent and former Navy cryptologist Kekoa Young is tasked with monitoring Elinor. This is both convenient since she’s his neighbor in Washington, DC, and decidedly inconvenient because . . . well, he kind of likes her.

As Elinor follows the clues her grandfather left behind to a top-secret nuclear project, Kekoa has no choice but to step in. When Elinor learns he has been spying on her, she’s crushed. But with danger closing in on all sides, she’ll have to trust him to ensure her discoveries stay out of enemy hands.

Natalie Walters sucks you into the global race for space domination in this perfectly paced second installment of her SNAP Agency romantic suspense series.

The Influenza Bomb by Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore

Masses of people are dying from a mysterious flu. While the TSI team searches for a cure, a notorious eco-terrorist group, Return to Earth, uses an influenza bomb to poison the water. It’s a race against time — with the outcome impacting the entire world.

By the time the team discovers that the terrorists are using the water supply to infect people, the sickness is spreading worldwide and no one has a cure. When Return to Earth makes off with a mysterious device called the influenza bomb with the intent to destroy all of mankind, Dr. Hutchinson must stop the contamination from being spread before it’s too late.

Outbreak by Davis Bunn

The waters off the West African coast are a menacing red, full of algae thick enough to stand on in places. In nearby villages, mysterious deaths start to occur — and the panic mounts. But before an alarm can be sounded, the sea currents shift, the algae vanishes, and the deaths stop. Everyone is relieved when things return to normal, and local government officials are happy to sweep the publicity nightmare under a rug.

An American biological researcher, Avery Madison, is dispatched by his employer to piece together exactly what happened, having long feared an ecological disaster just like this could occur. He’s had little evidence to go on before now, and what he finds in West Africa is rapidly disappearing. But Avery knows the danger hasn’t disappeared — it has just moved on.

The Paris Betrayal by James R. Hannibal

After a rough mission in Rome involving the discovery of a devastating bioweapon, Company spy Ben Calix returns to Paris to find his perfectly ordered world has collapsed. A sniper attack. An ambush. A call for help that brings French SWAT forces down on his head. Ben is out. This is a severance–reserved for incompetents and traitors.

Searching for answers and anticipating a coming attack, Ben and a woman swept up in his misfortunes must travel across Europe to find the sniper who tried to kill him, the medic who saved his life, the schoolmaster who trained him, and an upstart hacker from his former team. More than that, Ben must come to grips with his own insignificance as the Company’s plan to stop Leviathan from unleashing the bioweapon at any cost moves forward without him–and he struggles against the infection that is swiftly claiming territory within his own body.

Synapse by Steven James

Thirty years in the future, when AI is so advanced that humans live side by side with cognizant robots called Artificials, Kestrel Hathaway must come to terms not just with what machines know, but what they believe. Is hope real for them, or merely an illusion?

Soon after experiencing a personal tragedy, Kestrel witnesses a terrorist attack and is drawn into a world of conspiracies and lies that she and Jordan, her Artificial, have to untangle. With a second, more brutal attack looming on the horizon, their best chance of stopping it is teaming up with federal counterterrorism agent Nick Vernon.

But the clock is ticking — and all the while, Jordan is asking questions that Artificials were never meant to ask.

Deftly weaving suspense and intrigue into a rich, resonant tale that explores faith and what it really means to be human, Steven James offers us a glimpse into the future and into our own hearts.

Synapse is an unforgettable, gripping story of dreams shattered, truth revealed, and hope reborn.

Top 10 Tuesday Halloween Edition– Outbreaks and Epidemics!

27 Oct

This week’s Top 10 Tuesday is a Halloween Freebie. If it’s not too early for you, I have a list of books that feature outbreaks and epidemics — real life scary! And because they are all Christian or clean fiction, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are a couple of historical novels that feature the Spanish Flu, some mystery and suspense that explore potential viruses/bacteria and other biological agents that get loose, and a YA dystopian that explores the aftermath of an epidemic. A couple of the authors are even doctors. If the subject isn’t too frightening for you, I hope you find a great book.

 

For more Halloween goodness, head over to That Artsy Reader Girl.

 

 

 

Top 10 Books Featuring Outbreaks and Epidemics

 

An Air That Kills by Christine Poulson

The atmosphere in the lab is toxic.

It is only a matter of time before there is a flu pandemic with the potential to kill billions. Or so wealthy entrepreneur Lyle Lynstrum believes. That is why he is funding research into transgenics – the mechanism by which viruses can jump the species barrier – at a high security lab on a tidal island off the North Devon coast.

A suspiciously rapid turnover of staff has him worried. He sends in scientist Katie Flanagan as an undercover lab technician. Something is clearly very wrong, but before Katie can get to the bottom of what is going on, a colleague is struck down by a mysterious illness.
Has the safety of the facility been compromised, allowing a deadly virus to escape? Katie begins to suspect that the scientists are as deadly as the diseases – and that her cover has been blown.

Then the island is cut off by high seas and a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse begins . . .

Airborne by DiAnn Mills

Heather Lawrence’s long-awaited vacation to Salzburg wasn’t supposed to go like this. Mere hours into the transatlantic flight, the Houston FBI agent is awakened when passengers begin exhibiting horrific symptoms of an unknown infection. As the virus quickly spreads and dozens of passengers fall ill, Heather fears she’s witnessing an epidemic similar to ones her estranged husband studies for a living ― but this airborne contagion may have been deliberately released.

While Heather remains quarantined with other survivors, she works with her FBI colleagues to identify the person behind this attack. The prime suspect? Dr. Chad Lawrence, an expert in his field . . . and Heather’s husband. The Lawrences’ marriage has been on the rocks since Chad announced his career took precedence over his wife and future family and moved out.

As more victims fall prey days after the initial outbreak, time’s running out to hunt down the killer, one who may be closer to the victims than anyone ever expected.

As Bright As Heaven by Susan Meissner

In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters – Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa – a chance at a better life.

But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without–and what they are willing to do about it.

As Bright as Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it.

Captives by Jill Williamson

In a dystopian future, eighteen-year-old Levi returns from Denver City with his latest scavenged treasures and finds his village of Glenrock decimated, loved ones killed, and many – including his fiancée, Jem – taken captive. Now alone, Levi is determined to rescue what remains of his people, even if it means entering the Safe Lands, a walled city that seems anything but safe. Omar knows he betrayed his brother by sending him away, but helping the enforcers was necessary. Living off the land and clinging to an outdated religion holds his village back. The Safe Lands has protected people since the plague decimated the world generations ago … and its rulers have promised power and wealth beyond Omar’s dreams. Meanwhile, their brother Mason has been granted a position inside the Safe Lands, and may be able to use his captivity to save not only the people of his village, but also possibly find a cure for the virus that threatens everyone within the Safe Lands’ walls. Will Mason uncover the truth hidden behind the Safe Lands’ façade before it’s too late? 

The Gabon Virus by Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore

An ancient disease, a modern pandemic, and the one person who offers hope for a cure has been dead for 350 years

In 1666, a horrible disease took the lives of almost every person in Eyam (pronounced Eem), England. Helping the sick and the dying was the mysterious and ghostlike Blue Monk, whose strange appearance terrified even those who were comforted by him.

More than three centuries later the disease has returned, more virulent than before. Every day more people are infected; every hour more die.

The lives of millions rest in the hands of a bio-team — the Time Scene Investigators — that studies history to find cures for modern diseases. But the newest member of the team, Dr. Mark Carlson, has suffered a heartbreaking loss.

With every tick of the clock the world approaches a global pandemic. A race against time becomes a race across continents — to find a frightened boy who is carrying and spreading the disease wherever he goes, to thwart the machinations of corporate greed and fanatical sabotage, and to find the connection between a great tragedy of the past and a potential catastrophe of the present. Our present.

The Influenza Bomb by Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore

Masses of people are dying from a mysterious flu. While the TSI team searches for a cure, a notorious eco-terrorist group, Return to Earth, uses an influenza bomb to poison the water. It’s a race against time — with the outcome impacting the entire world.

By the time the team discovers that the terrorists are using the water supply to infect people, the sickness is spreading worldwide and no one has a cure. When Return to Earth makes off with a mysterious device called the influenza bomb with the intent to destroy all of mankind, Dr. Hutchinson must stop the contamination from being spread before it’s too late.

Lethal Remedy by Richard Mabry

An epidemic of a highly resistant bacteria, Staphylococcus luciferus, has ignited, and Dr. Sara Miles’ patient is on the threshold of death. Only an experimental antibiotic developed and administered by Sara’s ex-husband, Dr. Jack Ingersoll can save the girl’s life.

Dr. John Ramsey is seeking to put his life together after the death of his wife by joining the medical school faculty. But his decision could prove to be costly, even fatal.
Potentially lethal late effects from the experimental drug send Sara and her colleague, Dr. Rip Pearson, on a hunt for hidden critical data that will let them reverse the changes before it’s too late. What is the missing puzzle piece? And who is hiding it?

Outbreak by Davis Bunn

The waters off the West African coast are a menacing red, full of algae thick enough to stand on in places. In nearby villages, mysterious deaths start to occur — and the panic mounts. But before an alarm can be sounded, the sea currents shift, the algae vanishes, and the deaths stop. Everyone is relieved when things return to normal, and local government officials are happy to sweep the publicity nightmare under a rug.

An American biological researcher, Avery Madison, is dispatched by his employer to piece together exactly what happened, having long feared an ecological disaster just like this could occur. He’s had little evidence to go on before now, and what he finds in West Africa is rapidly disappearing. But Avery knows the danger hasn’t disappeared — it has just moved on.

Point of Origin by Lisa Harris and Lynne Gentry

When virus-infected pirates hijack a humanitarian medical ship from an African port, they trigger the threat of a global pandemic.

How do you keep hope alive in a sea of darkness?

An African fisherman.

Foreign exploitation of Africa’s natural resources has destroyed the fishing business of Dabir Omar. Hijacking oil tankers brings cash to his family in their remote village, but it doesn’t buy the medical care needed to stop the deadly sickness attacking his people. When Dabir’s son becomes ill, the desperate pirate sets sail for the Liberty, an international humanitarian medical ship ported on the coast. 

An American surgeon.

Against his better judgment, Dr. Josiah Allen agrees to work a two-week surgical stint on the Liberty, moored in Douala, Cameroon. Shortly after he arrives with his precocious six-year-old daughter, Josiah is sent ashore to investigate a mysterious illness at the ship’s post-op clinic. While he’s gone, Ebola-infected pirates hijack the medical ship where Josiah left his daughter.

The woman compelled to save them all.

When pirate negotiations fail, Mackenzie Scott’s privately-owned extraction unit comes in for the rescue. But when the medical ship where Mac had taken a wounded comrade is hijacked by pirates, the former military pararescue jumper becomes the pirate’s key hostage. 

Both fathers go to war to save their children. If Mac can’t convince them to work together, the winner of this conflict will be a deadly virus intent on destroying the world.

The Turning Tide by Melody Carlson

As the Great War rages on, Sunset Cove continues to feel its impact. Running the small town newspaper, Anna McDowell can’t escape the grim reports from the other side of the world, but home-front challenges abound as well. Dr. Daniel is serving the wounded on the front lines. And Katy, expecting her first child, with her husband in the trenches, tries to support the war effort with her Red Cross club. Even as the war winds down the costs are high— and Sunset Cove is not spared.

 

Top 10 Tuesday Throwback — Summer of 2010

23 Jun

Congrats to Top Ten Tuesday on their 10th Anniversary! It all started with The Broke And The Bookish and continues with That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week bloggers are challenged with great bookish memes. This week is a 10th Anniversary freebie. As I thought about what to post, I perused my book lists and decided to do a throwback post to the Summer of 2010. Things have really changed in those 10 years around here, but I still am reading wonderful books. Here are some of the books I was reading that summer. Are any of your favorites on my list?

Head over to That Artsy Reader Girl for more bookish goodness!

 

Top 10 Books of The Summer of 2010

 

Almost Forever by Deborah Raney

Distant Echoes by Colleen Coble

Greater Love by Robert Whitlow

Her Mother’s Hope by Francine Rivers

The Influenza Bomb by Paul McCusker and Walt Larrimore

Licensed for Trouble by Susan May Warren

Missing Max by Karen Young

Predator by Terri Blackstock

She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell

Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Top 10 Tuesday — Best Mystery/Suspense Novels of 2017

12 Dec

I was snowed-in over the weekend! Really? In Georgia!? Yes! What started as a weekend getaway to our mountain cabin turned into a struggle for survival. The light-dusting forecast became a 10-inch snow dump accompanied by a power outage. If not for the intrepid Domino’s driver who delivered to the end of our road and our uber-prepared neighbors who generously supplied our flushing needs, I don’t know what we would have done! Seriously, my husband is a prepper wannabe so we were sitting pretty (except for the above mentioned toilet issue). My contribution to preparation? A big pot of homemade soup and a fully-loaded and charged Kindle. Priorities, you know. I read two really great mystery/suspense novels, my genre of choice. Focusing on the life threatening adventures of the characters keeps the mind off the dwindling supply of oreos. 😉

The theme of this week’s Top 10 is Best of 2017. So here are the mystery/suspense books that I read this year that should always be in stock during a weather emergency. All are part of a series, so that takes care of the many hours of waiting for the power trucks to appear.

To find our what other books bloggers found exceptional this year, head over to The Broke And The Bookish.

Top Mystery/Suspense of 2017

Always Watching by Lynette Eason

Beneath Copper Falls by Colleen Coble

The Cover Story by Deb Richardson-Moore

Dangerous Illusions by Irene Hannon

Deadly Proof by Rachel Dylan

Death in The Shadows by Paul McCusker

Dressed for Death by Julianna Deering

Guilt by Association by Heather Day Gilbert

If I’m Found by Terri Blackstock

Moving Target by Lynette Eason

Still Life by Dani Pettrey

Vanishing Point by Lisa Harris

 

What book makes your must-have list?

 

Top 10 Tuesday: Books for Lovers of British Mysteries (+ A Canadian Cousin)

15 Aug

Top 10 Tuesday is back! Yay! The folks at The Broke And The Bookish had some well-deserved time off, but now they are back with great topics for book lovers. This week I’m talking about book recommendations for lovers of British mysteries. I love a good mystery and have found the following books to meet all the requirements — puzzling cases set in the British Isles. They run the gamut from historical and contemporary, amateur detectives and police procedurals, to urban and bucolic settings. Ironically, a couple of the series, while definitely having a British vibe, are authored by Americans. All are excellent!

Top Book Recommendations for Lovers of British Mysteries

+ A Canadian Cousin

(please note there may be more books in these series than are pictured)

The Aiden Mysteries by Fay Sampson

 

The Blitz Detective by Mike Hollow

 

The Drew Farthering Mysteries by Julianna Deering

 

The Faith Morgan Mysteries by Martha Ockley

 

A Father Gilbert Mystery by Paul McCusker

 

The Monastery Murders by Donna Fletcher Crow

 

A Mystery for D. I. Costello by Elizabeth Flynn

 

Poppy Denby Investigates by Fiona Veitch Smith

 

A Canadian Cousin!

The Herringford And Watts Mysteries by Rachel McMillan

 

What are some of your favorite mysteries?

 

Book Review: Death in The Shadows

6 Jan

41ykxx2ymbl-_sx324_bo1204203200_When Father Gilbert traded in his detective’s badge for an Anglican priest’s collar, he never expected that murder would follow him. Even a church conference in the quant seaside town of Englesea offers no escape.

The vision of a dead woman, water dripping from her body, draws Gilbert into a mystery that seems straightforward, but soon entangles him in a power struggle between corrupt players who want to dominate the illegal sex trade in town. The victims are pawns in a game that extends to London and across international borders.

The dead cry for justice and Father Gilbert fights against forces hiding in the shadows. Can he champion the truth in time to stop more people from dying?

 

973492_origPaul McCusker was born in 1958 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, but spent his formative years outside of Washington DC in Bowie, Maryland. He was given his first typewriter early in his childhood and hasn’t stopped writing since. Although he received a college degree in journalism, Paul’s first love was writing sketches and plays for Grace Baptist Church. From those efforts came his published drama collections for the prestigious Baker’s Plays, and the Lillenas Publishing Co., Contemporary Drama Services, Group Books and Monarch/Gazelle Books in England.

In 1985 he moved to California where he worked with Continental Ministries and wrote plays for the nationally-renowned drama group The Jeremiah People. This led to his work as a freelance writer for the Focus on the Family radio drama called Family Portraits, which later became Adventures in Odyssey. Since joining the Focus staff as a writer in 1988, Paul has written over 300 half-hour episodes for Odyssey and has also written 22 tie-in novels. Paul is now Creative Director at FOF, which means he thinks up stuff and then writes it.

In addition to Adventures In Odyssey, Paul helped to create Focus On The Family Radio Theatre, writing and directing many of its productions. Milestones include the Peabody Award-winning Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom, all seven books in CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, the acclaimed Father Gilbert Mysteries, the Audie-winning Life of Jesus, and The Screwtape Letters. Dickens’ Oliver Twist is his latest adaptation.

His novels include Epiphany (nominated for a ECPA Gold Medallion Award) for Zondervan Books, and You Say Tomato with best-selling British writer Adrian Plass. He has authored the popular Zondervan novel The Mill House, and its sequel A Season of Shadows. Paul recently penned a pair of medical thrillers, TSI: The Gabon Virus and The Influenza Bomb, with Dr. Walt Larimore.

His non-fiction includes Playwriting: A Study In Choices & Challenges and The Ultimate Youth Drama Book.

More recently, his connections with the writings of CS Lewis have strengthened, with the release of The Annotated Screwtape Letters and the new RT drama, CS Lewis at War. A companion book to that drama will come out next year.

Paul and his wife Elizabeth live in Colorado Springs with their two children.

My Impressions:

For fans of pure mystery, Paul McCusker’s latest Father Gilbert novel is a very satisfying read. I loved the British flavor, the complex characters and the thought-provoking themes that define Death in The Shadows. Father Gilbert is attending an ecumenical conference at a seaside resort town when he again is confronted with evil. Murder is the crime to be solved, but there is also the degrading and dehumanizing sin of human trafficking that is confronted. This novel struck a personal note with me. My daughter is employed by a non-profit that works to free women from the prison of sex trafficking. Death in The Shadows explores the very dark and ugly side of what many term victimless activity — timely subject matter.

Setting plays a big role in Death in The Shadows, with this novel having a very atmospheric feel to it. Father Gilbert is an intriguing character with a past that informs his present — he is former police detective who is now a Church of England priest. As in a previous novel featuring Father Gilbert, the supernatural is again a part of the story, which I found very apt. At one point Father Gilbert ponders the many realities that people confront, and the supernatural reality is one many dismiss or deny, yet is very real. The mystery unfolds slowly, yet this book is not one to be put down easily. You’ll want to keep turning those pages into the wee hours of the night.

A book to keep you puzzling and pondering along with Father Gilbert, Death in The Shadows is one I can recommend.

Recommended.

Audience: adults.

To purchase this book, click HERE.

(Thanks to Kregel and Lion Hudson for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

 

Top 10 Tuesday — Five-Star Reads

29 Mar

Thanks to the folks over at The Broke And The Bookish for hosting Top 10 Tuesday every week. There are lots of book bloggers that participate, so make sure to click HERE to find out what they are up to.

toptentuesday

This week’s theme is 10 of My Most Recent 5-Star Reads. I have been inundated with reading blessings this year and have enjoyed lots and lots of great books. The following are the last 5-star books I have read. Make sure to check out the reviews I have linked.

Top 10 5-Star Reads

(In Alphabetical Order)

Annabel Lee by Mike Nappa (suspense)

The Body under The Bridge by Paul McCusker (mystery)

The Fragment by Davis Bunn (historical suspense)

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Guarded by Angela Correll (women’s fiction)

The Hearts We Mend by Kathryn Springer (contemporary romance)

A House Divided by Robert Whitlow (legal drama)

If I Run by Terri Blackstock (suspense)

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The Memoir of Johnny Devine by Camille Eide (historical romance)

The Prophetess by Jill Eileen Smith (biblical fiction)

Thin Ice by Irene Hannon (romantic suspense)

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Book Review: The Body Under The Bridge

19 Feb

UnknownA former Scotland Yard detective, Father Gilbert knows about death. But, now a priest of a modest Anglican church in the small town of Stonebridge, he didn’t expect it to show up like this–in the suicide of a man who threw himself off the church tower, and in the discovery of a two-hundred-year-old body beneath an ancient bridge.

The deaths are linked. The mummified corpse under the bridge, a murder victim, reignites a centuries-old battle between two local families–the Todds and the aristocratic Hayshams. Then both David Todd and Lord Haysham begin to act strangely. They are fearful for reasons they won’t explain.

When Lord Haysham is murdered, David Todd is the prime suspect. But Todd is maniacal, claiming great forces of evil are at work. An entire history of violence and depravity begins to emerge, interweaving the history of several local families with a secret occult society that engages in Black Masses. Has the Society emerged again?

61XOkpwGGiL._UX250_Paul McCusker is the Peabody Award-winning writer and director of the audio drama Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom, along with the multiple award-winning audio dramatizations of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, A Christmas Carol, his original series The Luke Reports: The Life of Jesus (honored as Best Audio Drama by the prestigious Audie Awards) and The Father Gilbert Mysteries (also an Audie Award nominee), all for Focus On The Family Radio Theatre.

Apart from dramatizations of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia and Screwtape, he also scripted the original audio drama C.S. Lewis At War and written the companion book C.S. Lewis & Mere Christianity: The Crisis That Created A Classic. His work has extended to writing the detailed footnotes for The Annotated Screwtape Letters for HarperOne. (It is the first authorized annotated edition of any book by C.S. Lewis.)

McCusker is also a writer and director for the long-running children’s audio program Adventures in Odyssey, scripting over 250 episodes as well as 2 of the animated video series, authoring 18 spin-off novels, and serving as the general editor for The Imagination Station chapter books. For adults, he has written the Gold Medallion-nominated Epiphany, The Mill House and, with Dr. Walt Larimore, The Gabon Virus and The Influenza Bomb. His plays and musicals have been performed in churches and community theaters across the country. One, A Time for Christmas, was a Dove Award nominee. His lyrics have been put to music by the Grammy Award-winning Michael W. Smith.

 

My Impressions:

After a successful run in Focus on The Family Radio Theater, Paul McCusker is bringing his Scotland Yard detective turned Anglican priest to readers. The first book in the Father Gilbert Mystery series, The Body under The Bridge, is a treat for fans of mysteries. It has a very British setting, a puzzling mystery and a main character who struggles with issues of faith and the nature of good and evil. I rate this book a 5-star read! I loved it!

Father Gilbert has returned to St. Mark’s after a sabbatical of resting and regrouping. This late in life cleric is rather unconventional — a former detective with a traditional liturgical bent, he also has had first hand experience with evil. When a series of events, both physical and spiritual, draw him into a police investigation, his world is once again knocked off kilter. Unseen dangers await him as he searches for truth.

The Body under The Bridge is first and foremost a mystery. There are multiple suspects and motives involved. The present gets tangled up in curses and feuds from centuries past. This one is a puzzler that will engage all of your deductive powers. Very British, its subject matter is supported by the many spooky houses, cemeteries and crypts that serve as the book’s settings. McCusker’s main character, Father Gilbert, is very complex. His former life influences how he leads and interacts with his church and others in the community. Although tuned into the unseen battles of good and evil, he is often caught off guard — a subtle, but important point made to be fully armed with God’s truth. Father Gilbert has a number of visions that are mostly met with skepticism by the police, his curate, Father Benson, and his bishop. I found the disbelief expressed by the police natural. It was the dismissal by the church that spoke to me. How many times do we discount true spiritual encounters as mere coincidence or bad timing. We speak of evil in the world without really taking it seriously. I underlined a number of passages in the book, but here’s one that made a big impression:

Father Gilbert didn’t believe that the seemingly random convergence of mundane events often labelled by people as “coincidence” was random at all. The world was a vast tangle of interwoven webs and intricate patterns of cause and effect that, at its core, reflected a spiritual reality. We, as humans, were constantly being nudged towards a heavenly or a diabolical realm. Nothing was random. Even the mundane was filled with significance. (page 86)

Father Gilbert knows evil, but believes and trusts in God. A man who daily wrestles with his faith, he, nevertheless, continues to lean on God in the midst of weakness.

As I said in the beginning, The Body under The Bridge is a 5-star read. Its plot, setting, and characterization are great, but the presentation of the reality of the battle waged by evil is truly excellent. This is one I would recommend to anyone. The book wrapped up the mystery, but more from Father Gilbert is promised — I can’t wait!

Highly Recommended.

Audience: adults.

Great for book clubs.

To purchase this book, click HERE. 

(Thanks to Kregel and Lion Hudson for a review copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)