A Distant Melody, by Sarah Sundin (Revell)

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Oh boy, was this good! Where do I start?

I've already confessed to being a softie for stories of the Greatest Generation, but that aside, this is a marvelous book. Strong storyline, excellent writing, impeccable research--A Distant Melody has it all. In fact, Sarah Sundin has set the bar so high in this, her debut novel, that I'm a little nervous for her follow-on work. (Not really)

The story opens in 1942 with plain Allie Miller, heiress to a fabulously wealthy estate and a disasterously arranged engagement, visiting friends in the rural California countryside. There she meets Walt Novak, an unremarkable B-17 pilot on furlough from flight training. A friendship ensues and they leave behind promises to write each other, as Walt heads to England to fight the Luftwaffe over Europe and Allie returns home to fight herself over her future. Over the months and the miles, their faith and their relationship blossom and grow, albeit hindered by stutter-steps mostly of their own making. Finally, Walt returns home from England to an unexpected and breath-robbing climax.

By the bottom of page two, I knew I was going to like Sarah Sundin the Author. Smooth phrasing, great word choice, clever dialog, yes. But most impressive was her ability to finesse a consistent, yet subtle, thematic metaphor throughout the story, one hinted at by the title of the book. I was reminded of a marvelous cinematographic technique used in filming the movie The Age of Innocence, where the poignancy and theme of the story were underscored by brief snippets of seemingly unrelated graphical representations: a shifting collapse of burnt-through logs in a waning fireplace, the cold ash of a dying cigar breaking off into the ashtray. Ms. Sundin employs her obvious familiarity with the elements of music in the same way and to the same effect. Really well done.

Finally, Ms. Sundin knows her aeronautical and military lore. Full and accurate descriptions of the dynamics of powered flight, the anatomy and personality of the B-17 Flying Fortress, and the intensity and horror of aerial combat in World War II, set in concrete her right to author this story. Sound mechanical? Instructive? Dry? Oh, my goodness, no. She doesn't teach you about flying, you feel the wind tangle your hair during an open-cockpit landing. You don't mentally picture a Fort's cramped bubble turrent, your muscles stiffen in sympathy with the belly gunner. You don't read about somebody getting peppered by flak shrapnel through the plexiglass nose, you grab your leg and look for blood. She's that good.

You've probably gotten the picture that I liked this book. If you're looking for a story with as much romance, faith and action as you can possibly get into 415 pages, you've found it. No, you don't need to be a World War II buff to love this book. You just need to love great books.

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Exposure, by Brandilyn Collins (Zondervan)

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There are many good reasons Brandilyn Collins is recognized as a master of Christian suspense--and you'll find at least one of them on every page of Exposure.

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Exposure sets the tension bar high from the beginning and doesn't let up until about three days after you've finished the book. I made the mistake of selecting it for bedtime reading. Don't do that. I still haven't caught up on lost sleep, and I hit the back cover last week.

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Ms. Collins, bless her slightly warped heart, chose a storyline that pricks at a fear I think everyone owns at some level of their subconscious: the fear of being watched. By someone. From somewhere. For some reason.

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Our heroine, Kaycee Raye, sports that fear way above the subconscious level. It pervades every waking moment of her life. Kaycee confronts her paranoia by writing a syndicated column entitled "Who's There?" (Okay, admit it. That title is freaky enough by itself.) In her column, Kaycee helps her readers deal with their phobias by laying bare her own. But someone else is reading her column. Nearby. For a definite reason.

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The shadow reader exploits Kaycee's neurosis for a nefarious purpose that Ms. Collins springs on us through a gargantuan twist late in the story. That's the point at which you don't put the book aside until you've finished it--despite your wife's post-midnight beseeching to please turn off the bedside lamp and go to sleep. That's also the point from which Ms. Collins may well become the defendant in a class action suit for inflicting chronic insomnia on an unsuspecting readership.

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So, it's Jeannie's turn to read Exposure. I put it on her stack of to-reads that sits on her bedside night table . . . then I took it off the stack. It's now banished to the reading nook in our living room. It was either that or stock up on Tylenol PM.

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You really need to read Exposure. I'll know if you don't. Because I know who reads these reviews. And I'll be watching. From somewhere.

The Word Fulfilled, by Bruce Judisch (OakTara)

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The Word Fulfilled is up to bat in the production process at OakTara. It should be coming out within the next couple of months. Whatcha think of the cover? Should I keep it? Be honest.

Okay, so it's not a review, it's a preview. It's also my blog, so I can self-indulge on occasion. And, no, I have no idea why this cover came out so much larger than the other ones I post for my reviews. Must be an ego...er, I mean a technical-glitchy thing.

Forget Me Not, by Vicki Hinze (Multnomah)

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In Forget Me Not, Vicki Hinze spins an intricate web of intrigue, pitting against each other two extremes on the spectrum of human behavior: the indiscriminant destruction of innocent life and the benevolent protection of the same.

Three years ago, Benjamin Brandt lost his wife, Susan, and his son, Christopher, in a senseless act of violence, and he still hasn't recovered from the loss. When a woman, beaten and left for dead, appears at his crisis center bearing not only an uncanny resemblance to Susan, but the personalized necklace he had given his late wife, his emotionally scarred defenses go up. Suffering from trauma-induced amnesia, our Jane Doe struggles with Ben's acute reaction and her own bewilderment at her loss of identity.

Nothing and no one are as they seem. Ms. Hinze counterpoises an array of supporting characters, some of whom want to finish the job on Jane Doe, and others who, for their own reasons, want her alive. Bearing its own pressure in the background is an international terrorist organization with their own agenda, and their own reasons for wanting the mystery woman dead--and alive. Sound confusing? Let Ms. Hinze sort it out for you.

Forget Me Not is the first in the "Crossroads Crisis Center" series. You'll look forward to more.

Leave a comment on this post indicating your interest in owning the book before 5:00 pm on Friday, April 16th, and earn a chance to win a free copy of Forget Me Not.

Note: This review copy of Forget Me Not was provided free of charge by Multnomah.

We interrupt this broadcast...

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New development on the publishing front! OakTara, the publisher who is releasing A Prophet's Tale has teamed with FamilyAudioLibrary.com to provide e-books for our titles. The Journey Begun is now available in PDF as a download directly to your computer--no Kindle or Nook needed.

You can see it by going to www.familyaudiolibrary.com and clicking the E-Book tab on the left side of the page. Then enter the title in the search window.

Cool beans! :-)
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The Centurion's Wife, by Davis Bunn & Janette Oke (Bethany House)

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You'd expect a collaborative effort between two authors as accomplished as Mr. Bunn and Ms. Oke to be something special, something uniquely satisfying in both form and expression. The Centurion's Wife does not meet that expectation. It leaps far beyond it.

In form, the authors have done seemingly the impossible. They've taken a historical era trodden upon by so many authors from so many angles and in so many ways that it seems there'd be no verdant literary soil left among all the typewritten footprints to sow, and yet they still created a fresh and intriguing story. The central characters are Leah, a niece of Pontius Pilate driven to servitude in his household, and Alban, a centurion from the conquered territory of Gaul. They have irreconcilable amibitions. Leah's precludes marriage, and Alban's necessitates marriage--specifically to Leah. Oh, it gets better. Leah is pushed by Pilate's wife to discover the means and intentions of the followers of the Christ her husband has put to death, and Pilate forces Alban to do the same. Neither Pilate nor Procula know of the other's scheme, neither Alban nor Leah know of the other's mission. But the servant's and soldier's divergent goals paradoxically force their paths to merge where they encounter an irresistable force: the lure of a fledgling Gospel, and a purity of love and acceptance among its adherents--the very community Leah and Alban are to spy upon.

In expression, such beauty flowing from a single pen wielded by two master craftsmen of the literary art is something to behold. As I read, I made a distinct effort to try to identify those passages where I thought Mr. Bunn was manning the keyboard, and those points where Ms. Oke nudged him aside to color the text in her own way. Huh uh. They wove the tapestry so skillfully, that even the most subtle shifts in shading melded together seamlessly. One story, one theme, one narrative born of two minds united by the same irresistable force that ultimately united their heroes.

The Centurion's Wife is the first book in the "Acts of Faith" series. The second, The Hidden Flame (2010) carries the story forward into the early days of Christianity, and promises to be as satisfying as The Centurion's Wife. Tell you what: I'll let you know. While you're waiting, get a copy of The Centurion's Wife. You won't be sorry.

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