Description:

Raising her son alone in a drug-troubled Florida city, Christian homicide detective Jael Reynolds teams up with FBI special agent Grant Lewis to investigate a series of murdered drug dealers and finds herself enmeshed in the world of organized bigotry. Jael Reynolds is a divorced single mom who's doing her best to raise her son in Dadesville, one of Florida's most violent and drug-infested cities. She's also one of the city's top homicide detectives-a tough, no-nonsense Christian woman who has faced her demons and won, witnessing the mercy of God through prayer and faith. When one drug dealer after another starts turning up dead on her watch, Jael teams up with the only other person who seems to care, FBI Special Agent Grant Lewis. The two soon uncover layer after layer of corruption, organised bigotry, and hate that justifies murder in the name of God. Gripped in the clutches of an evil she has never encountered before, Jael's sense of right and wrong, and indeed her very faith, are put to their ultimate test. ** ### From Publishers Weekly The Klan meets Christianity in this thriller for the African-American market; what it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in strong faith. Jael Reynolds is a Florida divorcée who has found Jesus and regrets her former marriage to Virgil, whose physical attractions had once "called to her as if she were a slobbering pup." Virgil, a caricature of an ex-husband, berates Jael about her excessive work habits as a lead homicide detective. Trouble comes when drug dealers are knocked off one by one, and Jael is hot on the trail. When Jael's young son is kidnapped by the Klu Klux Klan, she turns to God for help, moving about his room, touching his belongings and claiming, "BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS, I CLAIM THE SAFE RETURN OF MY ONLY CHILD, RAMON." A showdown with evil ensues. As Jael reflects at the end of the novel, "She'd learned an enormous lesson that would carry her through the rest of her life. And whatever plan God had for her life, she had every confidence that He would see it through." The mechanics of fiction are shaky and the prolific use of "nigger" as a hate epithet lessens its shock value. Some Charismatic Christian African-American readers may appreciate this niche book, but many will be put off by its didacticism and one-dimensional characters. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.