Sometimes a story can catch you by surprise in it's quality. A book from a genre not known for it's serious tone can really catch your attention. This is the best way to describe my surprise upon reading Shadows on the Sand by Gayle Roper.
The story starts with a young restaurant owner, Carrie Carter (whose sister co-owns the restaurant), teasing one of her waitresses, Andi, about her boyfriend fighting with one of Andi's co-workers named Jase. As more customers hear about the boyfriend, more dislike him, and we in the audience are meant not to like him either.
It turns out that Jase is found murdered, with his body dumped in a lake, and Andi is suddenly terrified. No matter what Carrie does, the teen will not tell her what is wrong. Carrie and her friend, Greg, a former police detective whom she is dating, must race against time to discover Andi and Jase's secrets, as well as deal with their own.
This seems like a traditional set-up for a suspense romance, so I probably have plenty of rolled-eyes at this quick synopsis. In many ways, that would be a correct and expected reaction. I found myself becoming quite aggrieved at the over-used staples of the genre.
What made a difference is that the plot was actually believable. The author did not shy away from tough subjects, or gruesome details. That is not to say, of course, that Roper went overboard in any graphic ways, but just to say that she did not pull her punches either, as it were.
Besides the typical murder plot for a suspense romance, the book dealt with important real-world themes and problems. Adultery, cults, runaways, dysfunctional families, the need to forgive others, and the difference between cults and the truth of the Bible.
Instead of covering the reader's eyes, the author put on full display the depravity and wickedness of mankind, and how people can hurt themselves and others to such a brutal extent. She also, however, showed the amazing love of God, and what people who are in His image (Image-Bearers as author Randy Alcorn puts it) can do with His help.
This is much-needed in the realm of Christian fiction. Too many Christians do not know how to respond when people say that "religion is responsible" for "x" bad thing in the world. They don't know how to argue that just as the truth is different from a lie, so belief in Christ is different from a cult, radical Islam, Catholic pedophiles, pastors who rape their counselees, and other horrors.
I don't want to give readers the false hopes that Gayle Roper gives a guide to combating these slanders and misperceptions. She does not. She does however, mention the evils of these false teachers, and present a vivid case for how they must be battled in the field of ideas so that we may, if God wills it, win souls for Christ.
The other issue is one of forgiveness. At first it seemed like the typical Christian book of how the character is bad for not forgiving, but then the novel went in a unique direction. I won't spoil it, but it did raise some interesting points, and ones that I have thought on.
All in all, a good mystery, and one of the few suspense romance for me to be above-average happy with.
Highly Recommended.
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I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers. I am obligated to read it and give a review on my blog and on a commercial web site such as Amazon.com. Waterbrook Multnomah emphasizes their desire for honest reviews, whether positive or negative, in order to help them create a better product. The opinions above are my honest viewpoint. I want to thank Waterbrook Multnomah for allowing me to review this book, and thank you all for reading this.
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