Book Title: Surrender the Wind
Author: Rita Gerlach
Published By: Abingdon Press
Date Published: August 1, 2009
Genre: Historical Christian Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 382
Recommended Age: Adult
Rating: B/ 4
I received this book from Amazon. It was one of Amazon’s free Kindle books they
were giving away on a particular day.
Summary:
A young Patriot veteran of the Revolutionary War, Seth
Braxton receives a letter from his grandfather’s lawyer stating he has inherited
his grandfather Benjamin Braxton’s estate in England. With only intending to
stay in England long enough to sell off everything and return back to Virginia
with his little sister; he arrives to learn that his sister is a widow with a
two year old toddler who has been kidnapped. He stays to help bring his nephew
home and solve the mystery of who kidnapped his nephew and why. He also finds
himself falling in love with his sister’s best friend and re-awaking an old
enemy who is set on revenge.
My Thoughts:
I don’t usually read Christian novels because I don’t
believe they are quite realistic. I being
a Christian myself and attend church every week, I know people do not quote
bible verses to one another and talk about God’s Will on a daily basis, but I
thought I would give this book a chance. It seemed like it had some substance to it.
While I was reading it seemed to have the impression of The
Hound of the Baskervilles and I kept expecting Sherlock Homes to show up on the
scene, but all we got was a lazy police officer who wanted to claim everything
as an accident. I say that it had the
atmosphere of The Hound of the Baskervilles because it always seemed to be dark
or raining, or both. It added to the aura
of the mystery.
Most of the characters were well developed and had depth, one
was even functionally deranged. The
reader doesn’t realize how unbalanced the person is until the end. The one
thing I found fault with was that I believe Seth’s sister and her new beau
needed to have more depth to their characters since it was her son who was
kidnapped and he beau was Seth’s friend and helped Seth at every turn. Seth’s sister was treated as back ground characters
when you would think I mother would be more involved in finding her son’s
kidnapper, and her beau was treated more as a secondary character, but he’s character
had no substance other than a friend to Seth and the beau of Seth’s sister. I would have liked to know more about them
two.
I gave Surrender the Wind four stars and a grade of B,
because my first instinct was to give it a lower rating and grade, but only
because of all the unrealistic religious talk.
Then I thought if I took all that out what grade would I give it? That’s when I decided on the four stars and
the grade of B. It was a fantastic read
that kept the reader intrigued to the end. Rita Gerlach is a superb story
teller. If you like Christian historical fiction, or
just a good mystery with the aura of The Hound of the Baskervilles I recommend
Surrender the Wind.
Parents:
Language: Very clean language, biblical language
Adult Content: None
Violence: a couple of dead bodies and a fire but not in
detailed words.
No comments:
Post a Comment