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Summary: A police detective that has been off his game finds his way back.

I don’t read a lot of mysteries or police procedurals.  But Back on Murder has been well reviewed by several people I know.  And even more important, it has been used as an example of the potential and failure of Christian Fiction.  Mark Bertrand is the author of a trilogy of police procedural Christian Fiction books.  But he has publicly walked away from his book publisher (Bethany House) because they do not know how to market his books.

Christian fiction is known for Historical and Amish Romance, not dirty cops and murder investigations.  So I do not completely blame Bethany House, I mostly blame Christian Fiction readers for not exploring different genres.

Back On Murder has been well reviewed by a variety of Christian and secular reviewers.  It is clearly a Christian novel, but it is not a ‘hit you over the head’ with the gospel novel.

Roland March is a police detective.  He is not a Christian, if anything he is mad at God.  A personal tragedy several years before (not revealed to near the end of the book), affected him and his wife and threw his career for a loop.  He would have been fired long ago except for the fact that he used to be such a good cop.

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Takeaway: The particular work of the church and the individual Christian is less important than the fact that we are working in an area where we feel a calling.

The Evangelical Church has long had a healthy tension between social activism/ministry and evangelism.  I think there should be a tension.  We are called to do more than evangelism.  But included in our ministry must be some form of evangelism.

But as with any tension (healthy or not) there tends to be a pendulum swing one way or another to counter previous excesses.  Right now I think we are in a social activism swing.  I am all for this.  I have worked with homeless ministries, community development, education, etc.  And I think they are important part of a church’s work if for no other reason than to get the church outside of their own four walls.

Dillon Burroughs, Daniel Darling and Dan King have written a first steps book.  It has first steps for why the church should be involved in a number of issues from Slavery, Abortion, Homeless, Orphan Care/Adoption, Community/Business Development and much more.

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Summary: For many, this is an early introduction to eschatology.

It has been years since I have read the Last Battle (probably close to 25).  I know it is a book that I read several times.  And it definitely influenced my eschatology (theology of the end times).

Lewis was not universally loved for this book.  In fact, there are probably few books that generate more frustration from Evangelical readers than the Last Battle.

Lewis always claimed he was not writing Christian Allegory, but it is pretty hard to resist that claim when Lewis clearly is writing an eschatological story.  If you write about the end of the world and where the story ends up in ‘heaven’ then you cannot complain when people treat it as a theological work about eschatology.

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Takeaway: Fairytales are important, especially for adults.

We need more fairy tales in the world. And I don’t mean either vampire paranormal tales or moralistic children’s stories. I mean stories that show the world we see as part of a greater world. Stories that get at the real meaning of life. Stories that you can lose yourself in. There are lots of great authors, but few people that write fairy tales.

Gaiman is the best modern fairytale writer that I know of.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane is either my second or third most favorite book by Gaiman. I think Stardust is his best (also a great fairy tale for adults). And this vies with Neverwhere as his second best book.

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Summary: Third book in a fun adventure series where a single mom finds out she is the daughter of the Diana (of Greek God fame) and suddenly has a variety of powers (and enemies).

The Grace Murphy books are classic summer reads.  They are fun, light reading.  A good bit of action, a little bit of romance and something quite different from my standard fare.

The cover of this one is a bit more ‘provokative’ than the previous covers.  But it does make sense.  Grace Murphy is ‘a god’.  Well not actually a god, but one of a race of alien that live a long time and after whom the Greek Gods were modeled.  So her mother is Diana, and her father is Zachary (also known as Zeus).

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I am on vacation this week, so only pre-written reviews will be posted. Everything will be back to normal next week.

Summary: Everyday single mom finds out she is ‘a god’ with lots of powers and even more responsibilities (and people trying to kill her.)

It is summer and for me that means at least some mindless fun books. On spring break I read Huntress, the first book in this series.

Grace Murphy is a romance writer, recently divorced single mom, a bit of a sci fi geek and quite recently found out that she is the daughter of Diana.

In this series the Greek god are not actually gods, but a race of people from another world that protect the Earth from cross-dimensional bad guys.  Grace has been hidden for her own protection and in the previous book came to terms with her new life.

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