AGAINST THE WIND BY BODIE & BROCK THOENE

AGAINST THE WIND by BODIE & BROCK THOENE is the second book in their Zion Diaries series, but it can be read as a stand alone book.  I enjoyed it as it ties in with the Zion Covenant series and tells us more about Elisa and Murphy and their work during the second world war.  Elisa is involved in evacuating children, especially Jewish children, to America as Hitler is bombing England mercilessly and they are afraid that England will be invaded soon.  Some of the children that are on the same ship going to America are choirboys from the cathedral and the ones she is directly responsible for are girls whose parents are letting them go away to save them from the Nazi bombs.  Murphy can't go with her as he is a reporter and needs to stay in London to report the news to the world, hoping that America will step in before its too late.  They have sent their children ahead to the States with Murphy's parents and Elisa is looking forward to being with them again.  We see how the Nazis catch up with Elisa again when the ship she is on is torpedoed and we see her bravery and trust in God on a lifeboat on the Atlantic.  Instead of being overcome with fear she does her best to encourage those she is with.
Throughout the novel there are excerpts from her diary at the time she and Leah were in Austria playing their instruments at the Musikverrein, and how she meets and marries Murphy.  She also writes of her escape from Berlin and her father's capture by the Germans.  Murphy says of women that "they are like teabags, you never know how strong they are until they are in hot water!"  This is certainly true of Elisa.

THE ROSE CONSPIRACY BY CRAIG PARSHALL

THE ROSE CONSPIRACY by CRAIG PARSHALL is his latest legal suspense novel.  
J.D. Blackstone is a lawyer in Washington D.C. and professor of law at the university.  His partner in his law firm is Julia, a former student of his.  After his wife and daughter are killed in a car crash he has a stormy relationship with her which is over by the time the story begins.  J.D. has also studied psychology, but didn't finish his PhD in psychology.
After his family's accident he suffers from terrible insomnia.  He is rather pompous and patronizing towards those who work with him, and this upsets Julia, who is also a very clever lawyer.
The story starts with the theft of the missing pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary from Horace Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and with his murder.
J.D. is to defend Vinnie Archmont who has been charged with murder, and if found guilty will get the death penalty.  Vinnie is a very colourful character and comes on very strong to J.D. who she seems to find very attractive.  He is wary of her as he feels she is hiding something.
Vinnie is an artist, a sculptor, who has been making a bust of Horace Langley.  Her art studio is sponsored by a very strange Englishman, Lord Magister Dee, who is deep into Freemasonry and other spiritual cults.  He is also paying Vinnie's legal fees.
J.D. goes to England to meet this man and stays in one of his castles.  
J.D. has an uncle who is a retired Anglican minister who has just written a book on the Freemasons which is a great help to J.D., although he finds his uncle's Christianity a waste of time.  He is quite condescending towards his uncle, who is also a lecturer at the University.  His uncle lectures in comparative religions and speaks to J.D. about the Freemasons and gnosticism, which irritates J.D. to start with.
There are two ways of looking a certain piece of evidence in the case - from the religious point of view or from the historical point of view.  The religious side comes from the secrets of Freemasonry and the historical side is tied in with the murder of Abraham Lincoln and stolen gold.
There is quite a turn around in the end - with the case and with J.D.'s beliefs.  I found the book very interesting.

PREDATOR BY TERRI BLACKSTOCK

PREDATOR by TERRI BLACKSTOCK is an exciting thriller.  
Krista Carmichael has lost her sister Ella and she and her father David are determined to find her killer.  It seems as though she has been targeted by a predator who has joined her friends' list on GrapeVyne, a social network used by a lot of young people.  In their "bubbles" they give away far too much information, including their whereabouts practically every moment.  Krista confronts Ryan, who started GrapeVyne which he still runs, and tells him he himself is a predator by allowing such things to happen!  She is outspoken about the dangers of the site and speaks to young people at school to warn them.
When Ryan gets involved in trying to help catch the killer and wants to warn youngsters of the dangers of giving out too much information, he is warned by the board at Willow, who are afraid that he will cause their business irreparable harm.  He has been bought out by Willow, and when he and his friend Ian  start digging into Willow, they are both fired.
Ryan used to be a believer, but when he became totally involved in his work, working long hours, and also became very rich, he seemed to have forgotten about the Lord.  Krista, on the other hand, is very involved with helping young women in dangerous areas, leading them in Bible study, counselling them and generally encouraging them.  When more young girls become victims she begins to doubt God, wondering where He was when terrible things happened. 
Megan is a young girl who is targeted by the killer and who manages to escape with her life.  Krista, Ryan and the police run  lots of mug shots from the GrapeVyne data base and from the police files, but she cannot recognize her killer in any of the photos.  It is very sinister, as the predator could be posing as anyone on her site.
David, Krista's father, is devastated by what happened to Ella and doesn't trust anyone.  He is ready to kill the person responsible for his daughter's terror.
The story is very relevant in these days of cyber friendships. The plot is fast-moving and exciting and the book is very hard to put down.

AT THE SCENT OF WATER BY LINDA NICHOLS

AT THE SCENT OF WATER 
by LINDA NICHOLS is one of the loveliest books I have read.  It is beautifully written and has a wonderful theme of forgiveness and redemption.  We see how various characters deal with tragedy, grief, guilt and unforgiveness.  The main characters, Annie Dalton/Truelove and her husband Dr Sam Truelove come from Gilead Springs.  Their families have been close friends and they grew up together, especially as Annie lost her mother very young and spent a lot of time at the Truelove home.  We see the tragedy of the loss of their daughter, Margaret, who drowned in the creek when she was being looked after by Mary Truelove, Sam's mother.  Mary finds it impossible to forgive herself and she is even angry with God for allowing it to happen.  Her old friend Elijah Walker, who has been a medical missionary in Africa for years, helps her to forgive herself and to come back to trusting the Lord again.  There are wonderful Scripture verses throughout and there is a very strong emphasis on the importance of water, especially as the land has been suffering a severe drought for three years.  The same drought is in Annie and Sam's hearts and they are both working hard at keeping their emotions in check.  We get the feeling that the floodgates are about to open any moment!  Annie's father, Carl,  trusts in God and keeps hope alive.  He waters the Balm of Gilead trees which he has planted in his and Annie's gardens.  His wife, Diane, is very down to earth and  very loving, and also walks very closely with the Lord.
When Sam hears of his daughter's drowning, he doesn't rush to Annie's side in the hospital where their little girl is lying, but he carries on with a heart operation on Kelly Bright.  He is a brilliant children's cardiac surgeon and totally dedicated to his work, but he makes a mistake and Kelly ends up a vegetable.  Annie cannot forgive him for operating on another child when they have just lost their daughter.  She is a reporter and had just gone back to work part-time and had asked him to look after Margaret while she was following a story.  He is called away to operate on Kelly as he is the best cardiac surgeon in the hospital, and leaves Margaret with his mother.  Mary is called to the phone and doesn't notice that Margaret is not napping but has gone down to the creek to play, as she loves water.  
Sam and Annie are separated.  Every year on their wedding anniversary he waits for her at a restaurant where they used to go for special occasions.  There is an old lady there who goes there every year with her friends to celebrate her birthday.  She prays for Sam as he looks so sad, and he always goes away devastated when Annie fails to appear.  The last time he goes there, she speaks to him and says she has a word from the Lord for him, that he mustn't give up.  She prays for the woman he is waiting for as well.
Sam used to pray when he operated and to minister to the parents of the children that he operated on.  He was very dedicated to his job and felt the Lord had given him a special gift.  He did his work as unto the Lord.  Since Annie left and Margaret died he is no longer passionate about anything.  He just works and his colleagues are worried about him. 
Annie decides to divorce him as she has no feeling left.  She feels dead inside and also has turned away from the Lord.  She is offered a job at the L. A. Times and decides to move there, far away from everyone and everything she has loved.
I'm not going to tell you the end of the story as I don't want to spoil it for you.  I found it very inspiring and full of so much biblical truth.  The characters are very well portrayed and the language is beautiful.

PRAGUE COUNTERPOINT BY BODIE & BROCK THOENE

PRAGUE COUNTERPOINT by BODIE & BROCK THOENE is the second book in the Zion Covenant series.  It is especially meaningful for me as I have been to Vienna recently, and been to the Judenplatz where the Jews lived before the second world war, and where they were brutally attacked by the Nazis when Hitler took over Vienna in March 1938. We then see Hitler making plans to take over Czechoslovakia, while Britain and France passively stand by and watch, in spite of Churchill's warnings and Hitler's diabolical acts against the Jews and the weak - anyone who didn't fit his Arian mould.  I have read all the books in the Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles series several times each.  They are wonderfully realistic - not only are the character studies excellent, but we get an incredible insight into how things really were in those days.  We also get to see the horrors of the Holocaust and of war in general.  Brock Thoene is a historian, and his contribution is evident throughout.
Leah Feldstein is a Jewess who plays the cello at the Musikverrein with Elisa Lindheim/Murphy who plays the violin.  Elisa is also Jewish, the daughter of Theo Lindheim, once a well known businessman of Berlin, who has just escaped from Dachau.  While Elisa is blond and doesn't look Jewish, she has married Murphy to get an American passport and for Murphy to help in her father's escape from Dachau.  Theo is a Jewish believer in Christ who was imprisoned and he and his wife live in Prague now, where they hope to be safe from Hitler's advance.  
Eliza's husband Murphy is an American news reporter who is trying to get the truth about Hitler's atrocities to Britain, France and America.  He meets with Churchill, as does Thomas von Kleistmann, who is in the German army and is secretly in opposition to Hitler.  Messages are passed through a bookseller in Vienna and one in Paris.
Walter Kronenberger, a German news reporter, has lost his wife in an enforced sterilization operation, and he is afraid he will lose his five year old sons, Louis and Charles as well.  Charles was born with a very disfigured mouth and Hitler is determined to kill this "vermin".  Walter sends the two to Leah at the Musikverrein, and she and Eliza  help in their escape.  Murphy gets possession of Walter's "testament" which he is determined to publish so that people hear the truth of what has happened to the Kronenberger family.  It is very exciting and we see the incredible selflessness of people who literally lay down their lives that others may live.
The Thoenes' love for God's chosen people is evident, and we see the true love of Christ in those who choose to love the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  I feel it is important to read the books in sequence, and I have found it really worthwhile to do so. 

STORM GATHERING, THE SPLITTING STORM & STORM SURGE BY RENE GUTTERIDGE

STORM GATHERING, THE SPLITTING STORM & STORM SURGE by Rene Gutteridge are a series of thrillers which are well worth reading for the exciting plots and for the strong Christian message that runs throughout.  The storm theme and the theme that "things are not as they seem" flow through the three novels. 

In the beginning of "Storm Gathering" we come across a strange child who is obsessed with fighting the dragon that is trying to hurt his mother.  We only find out who this tortured soul is at the end of "Splitting Storm". The main character, Mick Kline, has always been fascinated with the weather, and is a keen storm chaser.  He is a qualified accountant, who now has a job as a high school coach where he is very undervalued.  He starts out in "Storm Gathering" as a very angry man, a heavy drinker, estranged from his brother Aaron, who is a cop and a committed Christian and who frustrates Mick by always doing things right, while Mick's life is falling apart.  The main cause of the falling out is that Aaron gets engaged to Jenny, who Mick is in love with and who was his girlfriend.  Mick's relationships with women have never been very committed, and he plays hard to get with Jenny and loses her to Aaron. Jenny is a Christian and is drawn to Aaron which infuriates Mick and the story starts with the two brothers in a fist fight.  It is sad, as they have always been close, and Mick used to look up to his older brother until he became "religious" and became a thorn in his side. 

Aaron has always tried to make Mick see that he is not inferior in any way, and tries hard to get Mick to see himself as special, someone who matters to God and to his fellow man.
While Mick is in a state of rejection and anger he goes to a bar to drown his sorrows and meets Taylor Franks, a beautiful blonde who has her own problems of rejection by her ex boyfriend, Sammy Earle, an arrogant attorney who is not all that honest in his legal dealings and who has destroyed Taylor financially whilst destroying her self esteem.  Mick is very drunk and goes home with her.  He wakes up in the morning on the floor with a huge hangover and not much memory of what happened the night before, with Taylor having disappeared.  Mick ends up being accused of kidnapping and possible murder. 
There is an undercurrent of evil, and we feel that with the storm gathering against Mick, his life could go one way or another -he could be destroyed by the storm building up against him, or saved by admitting his inability to cope on his own and surrendering to the only One who can help him.  He is falsely accused and knows he has been set up somehow, not only for Taylor's kinapping and possible murder, but also for the murder of Stephen Fiscall.  Aaron tries to help prove Mick's innocence, but Mick doesn't help matters by running off.  Shep Crawford, a rather weird homicide detective, seems to be the only one who believes in Mick's innocence. Mick's search for truth leads to restored relationships - with his brother and also with the Lord - when he is brought to the end of himself and literally goes through fire and water, and also nearly dies from food poisoning.
In "The Splitting Storm" we find a regenerated Mick Kline, who is now working for the FBI and is living a very different life as a committed Christian.  We find that Aaron has been murdered, and Mick is determined to find his killer.  He has a theory that Aaron was murdered by a serial killer, and looks into several cop murders. Because of his obsession with his brother's murder he is sent to the FBI psychiatrist, Abigail Grenard, who has worked in profiling and who believes in Mick's theory and does some research of her own.  He is also put on thirty days' forced leave as he is not meant to be looking into Aaron's murder and interfering with the FBI's investigation.  One of the murder files fascinates him and he finds Faith Kemper, the blind wife of Paul Kemper, who was murdered in front of Faith.  Paul was a committed Christian, but his brutal murder and her fear for her own life, has made Faith turn away from her childhood faith.  Mick wants revenge against his brother's killer, and Faith is so afraid that she just wants to hide away behind her dark glasses and live quietly with Sissy, her dog.  She trusts no one. She moves every two or so years and tries not to interact with anyone, but she finds a good friend in Dixie and becomes fond of the people who work at the local diner, who are kind to her.  Dixie does all she can to get her to church, but it is through what she and Mick go through in the search for Paul's killer that she eventually turns to the Lord. She and Mick become close and Faith eventually learns to trust him. A splitting storm is one that divides in two - one part dying out and the other one developing into the storm.  Mick has two suspects in Paul's murder case. Abigail helps with profiling both the suspects and the end of the book is very exciting and full of suspense.
Ten years pass in Mick's life and we come to "Storm Surge."  Mick now chases storms and photographs them.  He has always, even during his rebellious days, been someone who wants to help people.  In fact, in the Taylor Franks' case he is the only one who seems to want to find out what has happened to her, to see if she is all right or if she has indeed been murdered. We see him risking his life over and over again to save people's lives.  His fight for truth and justice even causes him to try and find the truth about Stephen Fiscall's murder,  when Sammy Earle protests that he is innocent and is about to be executed for a crime he did not commit.  In fact, it is the realization that Mick risked his life for him which leads Sammy to accept the Lord. He realizes that he has been like Judas at the Last Supper who allowed Jesus to wash his feet and then betrayed Him.  Sammy realizes that he can either be self-sufficient and try and make up for his own sins as best he can, or he can become weak and humble before the Lord and accept what He did for him on the cross. 
Mick and his partner Reggie are called to a fire where they meet Libby Lancaster who works for the ATF.  It is a well known fact that the FBI and the ATF do not enjoy sharing their cases.  At first Libby is very standoffish, but eventually she and Mick become friends and work well together.  The man who is found burnt in the building is Joel Sanderson, who is being investigated by the FBI in an embezzlement case.  He used to work for Ira Leville, who is also under investigation.  There have been a series of arson cases that are connected with businesses that are involved in insurance fraud that lead back to Sanderson and Leville. 
Mick and Libby are injured in another fire where she rushes in to try and save the firefighters and injures herself badly, and Mick tries to go in after her and is flung back and breaks his arm.
Reggie spends his life trying to set Mick up with dates, and he is quite surprised when Mick has not only one woman who he may be interested in but three!  We find out in the end who it is - will it be Jenny, Faith or Libby?
In the end we find Mick and Libby in the middle of a category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Eve, being tossed around by the storm and at the mercy of a deadly killer who has been playing mind games with Mick all along.  Mick comes face to face with evil in the form of a psychopathic killer.

In the end Mick decides what he wants to do with the rest of his life, and who the woman is that he wants to spend the rest of his life with.

VICIOUS CYCLE BY TERRI BLACKSTOCK

 VICIOUS CYCLE by Terri Blackstock.
This is the second book in the INTERVENTION SERIES - a gripping suspense story with a strong Christian message.  It is not necessary to read INTERVENTION first, as this book can stand alone, but I can also highly recommend it to you.
When I saw the title, I thought of Romans chapter 8 verse 2 in the Living Bible where Paul says that Jesus has "broken the vicious circle of sin and death", and this truth is brought out very strongly in this book.  We see the struggle that teenagers have trying to resist the drug culture of today, the destruction that addiction brings to families and individuals, and their inability to kick the habit in their own strength.  We see a mother so hooked on drugs that she doesn't care what happens to her own daughter who, at the age of fifteen, is totally addicted and has to give birth alone to her own baby girl while high on meth.  This young girl, Jordan, and her baby are nearly destroyed due to the wickedness of her mother and her half brother.
We see Emily, who we first come across in "Intervention", with a loving mother, Barbara, who is fiercely protective of her children, but who had to give in to using intervention  in her desperation to save her daughter, and a brother, Lance, who has been through a lot due to his sister's addiction.  When "Vicious Cycle" starts we find Emily about to graduate from New Day Treatment Centre, a Christian facility for girls wanting to be set free from addiction.  Without being forced to stay, they are encouraged to stay for a year, and learn how to stand against temptation, using Scripture and a personal relationship with the Lord.  When Lance gets into trouble trying to help Jordan and save her baby, Emily is nearly drawn back into drugs due to her involvement with Jordan and her old gang.  The pull is very strong, especially as she feels very lonely without her friends at New Day, and she can no longer hang out with her old friends who are still doing drugs.
Barbara is a widow who is struggling financially due to her losing her business when she was trying to clear her daughter's name ("Intervention" tells this story) and she is desperately trying to keep her family going in the right direction.  After coming out of New Day, Emily decides to be totally honest with her mother about her feelings of loneliness, and the pull that drugs still has on her.  She knows she will not be able to cope alone, and needs all the help she can get.  We see the selflessness shown by Lance, who is thrown in jail and nearly killed for his trouble, and Emily who risks being drawn back into addiction, when these two youngsters do all they can to help Jordan and baby Grace.  Barbara's friend, Kent, who is a detective, is very helpful and supportive and also risks his life trying to save others' lives.  We are brought to the conclusion that, not only is it fruitless trying to fight against sin and temptation in our own strength, but also that truly "nothing is impossible with the Lord."