Read it. Enjoy it. - I am a reviewer for Active Christian Media (ACM)and today it's my privilege to do a review of Craig Parshall's novel Trial by Ordeal, published by Harvest House Publishers.
But before I launch into that, if you are a blogger and interested in getting media from books to music to videos of a Christian nature to review let me point you to ACM where you can sign up to be a reviewer. There is a one time fee that Stacy is using to weed out those people not serious about reviewing.
Now back to the task at hand.
How can someone make law interesting? Much less write a fictional novel where the law plays a key part of the plot and do so in such a way that doesn't give the reader a substitute for sleeping pills?
It can't be easy, but a few people are gifted with the ability to take rough, cloudy, rocks and produce jewels worthy of purchase.
Craig Parshall is such a writer. Perhaps his many years as a DC lawyer is what gives him the jewel cutter's gift.
In many ways I couldn't help but compare him and Trial by Ordeal to the work of John Grisham. But that's not really that surprising since Grisham, at least in my mind, put the "Courtroom Thriller" on the map.
In Trial by Ordeal, Parshall stands toe to toe with Grisham.
In fact, I would think this book would make a great story for the big screen.
Somewhere around halfway into the book the image a magnificent, jumbled, knot popped into my head. That knot was the life of the lead character Kevin Hastings. I couldn't wait to see which string Parshall was going pull that would unjumble the knot. That desire kept me reading this fast paced suspense book, a book where Parshall shows Hastings going from successful professor, to a man homeless and looking over his shoulder, and finally to a simple life changing encounter with Christ.
We get some of that feel from the first paragraph:
"I was standing in front of a door. It belonged to the little office of some lawyer I had never met before, at least professionally. I hesitated before going in. After everything I had endured, and in light of the nonstop avalanche of misery brought down on me by certain men - men whose indifference toward my plight made me think they had hearts that pumped embalming fluid rather than blood - I knew how high the stakes were. And I understood exactly how close I was to disaster."
On a scale of 1 to 5, the highest being a 5, I give this book a 4.
Very enjoyable quality fiction.
As a writer myself, there was one thing that made me scratch my head as I read. It was what I saw as a POV (Point of View) discrepancy. Parshall does an excellent job of writing this novel in first person point of view; that of Kevin Hastings. So everything we are given is only stuff that Hastings could experience. But there were two, maybe three, short chapters where Hastings (a history professor) relates scenes where he wasn't present. And that made me go "Hmm." Though we are given insight into how that is possible at the end of the book which I won't spoil for you, because it is well worth reaching.
Not only was this book worth reading for me as far as it being an worthy story, but I can't help but read a novel as a writer and go, "Hey, I like how he/she did that. I got to remember that." In other words, I came away from this book with some examples of good writing technique and story crafting.
Pick it up and enjoy yourself.
Oh, yeah. For those of you who don't know, I am Hal Paxton. I sport a degree in Creative Writing. I'm the dude behind this Weblog, The Great Separation. And I'm working on my first novel, Sins of Our Fathers. A story about a pastor who must confront his bitterness with God to stop the serial murderer in his church and save the woman he's discovered he loves.
Technorati Tags: Book, Fiction, Novel, Suspense, Law, Crime, Christian.
