Abomination

Abomination, by Colleen Coble, takes you into the mind of Gideon, a tormented serial killer, who uses Proverbs 6 and geocaching to leave clues about the murders.

Proverbs 6:16-19 lists seven things that are an abomination to God: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a wicked heart, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Geocaching is a game of hiding and seeking treasure using GPS technology. Basically the three rules of the game are: if you take something from the cache you also leave something of equal or greater value, you write about the find in the cache logbook and then you log your experience on the geocaching web site.

In this story, the killer puts one of the verses from Proverbs and the location of a body (the cache) online. However, when one of his victims escapes, he becomes the hunted while continuing to stalk the escaped victim who also has amnesia. Unexpected twists and turns make this read a page turner and the identity of the killer is a suspense-filled surprise. It also brings to light how we all have to guard against the things that are an abomination to God.

Dead Heat

Joel C. Rosenberg's Dead Heat is the fifth and final novel in his geopolitical thriller series. The author's note prefacing the first chapter reiterates that the novel is fiction, but it still makes one wonder about the turbulent world we live in and what role, if any, the United States will play in the end times.

President MacPherson's second term in office is ending, a new dictator is rising in Iraq, Israel is on a urgent quest to complete the Third Temple, China and North Korea forces appear ready to strike and  the world is on the verge of a mammoth disaster. After terrorists attack the United States, Jon Bennett is called upon again to help. But this time he is in a remote Jordanian refugee camp with his wife, Erin, who has contracted a potentially fatal illness.

Although it is a fast-paced, action-packed and thought-provoking read, I add my prayer to the author's that the events stay fictional.

The Last Days

The Last Days is one of  Joel C. Rosenberg's geopolitical thrillers where Jon Bennett, a former Wall Street strategist, becomes the point man for an Arab-Israeli peace plan. With the world watching, Jon and his beautiful CIA partner, Erin McCoy, arrive in the Middle East to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

However, before the historic meeting can take place, explosive events send Jon and Erin underground where they facilitate a peace plan in secret. The plan would harness vast supplies of oil and natural gas and make every Muslin, Christian, and Jew in Israel and Palestine wealthy. But men with evil hearts and the countries that support them want no part of peace in the Middle East and launch assaults aimed to kill all those involved with the peace plan.

The scary part about this fictional story is that you can easily imagine it tomorrow's headlines.

Scream

Scream, by Mike Dellosso, is a thriller that will keep you glued to the pages. The main character, Mark Stone, has his phone calls interrupted by otherworldly screams, the kind of screams that remind him of the weeping and gnashing of teeth describing hell.

When Mark realizes that the people on the other end of his phone calls die shortly after hearing the screams, he begins to search for their meaning. While struggling with his own broken faith and marriage, he receives a phone call from Cheryl, his kidnapped estranged wife. That phone call sends Mark racing to save Cheryl from both the kidnapper and the screams.

A final note from the author points out that while the book was written to entertain, it was also written to challenge us to think about life and death, heaven and hell, and where we will spend eternity. He also gives a call to action: to accept Jesus and then tell everyone about it. A good reminder that the Christian supernatural thriller I'm working on also has that dual purpose.