Monday, February 13, 2012

Surrender the Wind, by Rita Gerlach


 


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
Rad and Reviewed By: Me
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  I being a Christian myself and attend church every week, I know people do not quote bible verses to one another and talk about God’s Will on a daily basis, but I thought I would give this book a chance.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.  


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