S. W. Southwick. The Untethered. Roble Arrow, 2017. E-book.

The Untethered, judging from the name of the publisher above, must be a self-published work. If so, it is one of the best self-published efforts I have read. I am surprised that no one picked it up…that is, unless the author wanted to do it on his own. Perhaps we can infer from the story that he tells that that is precisely what Mr. Southwick wanted to do.

The “Untethered” are actually a group of people who through a variety of circumstances come together to build a superior aircraft. They have to overcome quite a bit besides gravity to do it, though, and that makes for a great tale.

Like some stories by Neal Stephenson or Cory Doctorow, there is an element of science fiction, but the setting is contemporary and the science is not that far off. In other words, there are no wormholes, time warps, or gravitational anomalies. The technology described here could appear in the real world in the not-too-distant future.

Roble Santos, a former ward of the state of Nevada, now is an airman in the U. S. Air Force. He is a self-taught aeronautical genius. He knows airplanes and the foster home system but not much else. He not only serves as a jet mechanic, but in his spare time he soups up a Japanese airplane at the air base in Japan where he is stationed.

He gets his modified parts from Libby Industries, a Nevada manufacturing company that specializes in very fast private jets. Its owner and chief developer is Libby Dodge. Ms. Dodge has just turned down a buyout from a large defense contractor, ignores visitors from the state government, and is not interested in supporting the lieutenant governor’s favorite charity which aids orphans.

The charity is overseen by Alexa Patra, a former gymnast and dancer, still attractive and single in her mid-thirties. When the lieutenant governor is nominated to run for governor, he nominates Ms. Patra as his running mate.

We also meet casino owner Stock Brant, a kind of renegade businessman whom Alexa finds attractive. He is wealthy, having made his money not on the casino—which is a tax write-off—but by providing people with illegal drugs and genetically modified foods. His expensive illegal drugs have cured people of cancer, but he meets a brick wall when he tries to get government approval. His genetically modified pine nuts are large and delicious, but they are outlawed, too.

Yes, his lieutenant Jessy has organized distribution of the usual street drugs as well, especially cocaine. Even here, Brant rebukes Jessy when he begins selling lower quality powder to his customers. Good businessmen need happy customers.

The architect Halvern Black is building a kind of modern cliff dwelling for Libby Dodge on desert property she owns. This plus her refusal to be bought out or to donate to the popular charity leads the Federal government to “reclaim” her land, take over her property and new home, and shut down her aerospace manufacturing. Making private planes that are capable of breaking the sound barrier is illegal, she is told. (She actually makes them with a governor, but the governor can be removed or worked around.)

So yes, the governments are unjust. Even individuals who try to make things better or make better things are done in by “the system.” So Roble’s commanding officer, Colonel Sircor, lets him modify some planes and loves what he does with them. But when Roble gets a new c. o., he is court-martialed for not following procedures and is booted out of the service.

Meanwhile, Alexa is having an early midlife crisis and realizes that she has been spending all her time and energy trying to please people rather than doing what is really in her nature to do. She does not campaign but is elected and sworn in as lieutenant governor and then disappears. We learn that she is living nearly off the grid in the single small house Libby Dodge is allowed to keep. She joins a very popular acrobatic act at one of the Las Vegas casinos.

There are a few other characters worth mentioning in this review, plus a host of others. Nicolette is a professional tennis player who plays scientifically. She can do calculations in her head to steer the tennis ball exactly where she wants it to go. She even beats a top male tennis pro. She does not like the way the professional tennis system works and drops out after making a few million dollars on the pro circuit. She holds informal matches on a court in her yard. Many pros play there from time to time, and the games are popular on the Internet, but the Tennis Association complains.

Many of these characters are notably skilled in math or science. Roble recognizes not only aerodynamics but aeronautically sound materials. Libby Dodge designs planes with speed and sturdiness. Col. Sircor and some Japanese counterparts love airplanes and recognize quality in design and propulsion.

Nicolette probably represents the professional tennis of the future. We have already seen how “quants”—quantitative sports analysts—have affected baseball and basketball. Just this past week we learned that the Tampa Bay Rays are playing one of their statistical analysts as a bench coach in their dugout for the manager to consult while the game is being played. The last organized baseball he played was Canadian T-ball at the age of five, but he knows how to interpret the statistics on hitting, pitching, ball trajectory, weather, etc.

All the protagonists one way or another contribute to the new super aircraft designed by Libby and Roble, the Roble Arrow. They are all independent thinkers and emphasize their individuality in spite of pressures from society, family, government, or organized crime. To do otherwise would go against their nature. One of them asks:

“Aren’t humans natural beings? And isn’t it their nature to create things such as this?” (68)

When challenged by some environmental extremists, she says:

“Mankind is most certainly changing the environment. Do you happen to know of another way to survive other than to control the elements?” (69)

Good questions.

When Libby is dispossessed of nearly all her property and livelihood, her lawyer tells her that she does not have much of a chance for fair trial or even for a defense.

“You’ve been villainized in the national media, even if some sympathetic local bureaucrats or a judge had wanted to help you, they didn’t dare.” (97)

When another person complains to the governor that the state and federal governments stole Libby’s house, he replies:

“Stole? Don’t use silly words, my dear…As you know, society is the rightful owner of all property. And when it is not used for the greater good, it is our duty to reallocate its possession.” (109)

Hmm. This is not exactly how I read the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights.

So it goes.

Roble does find a place somewhat beyond the purview of the governments, and there is plot twist towards the end that is reminiscent of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. It is actually a little more believable in The Untethered because is not set in California.

If the plot of this story suggests something else, the author drops hints:

“…he pulled out an English and Japanese version of his favorite novel—about an aspiring architect…” (121)

If the reader missed that allusion, there are a couple more. Nicolette has a tattoo of a fountain. She explains to some soldiers what it means:

“A fountainhead is a source of water—a source of life.” She pointed to her own temple. “I am the source of my own purpose—my source for living.” (473)

Yes, The Untethered is a retelling of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. Traditional ideas and a repressive government versus the dedicated creative individual! If antyhing, the ending is even more triumphant than in the Rand novel. If Howard Roark standing victoriously over his edifice moves you, you will love the final chapters of The Untethered.

There is one thing that is perhaps a little different about The Untethered. While the characters all have a streak of individual creativity, they also recognize this quality in others. About a dozen of these “individuals” have to work together to develop the supersonic aircraft. It is a group effort, but they all have a similar vision, one not shared by the military-industrial-government complex. Individualism only goes so far. We do need others to really achieve our creative potential.

In her philosophy, Rand questioned sexual mores to the point that even some feminists who espoused so-called free love were appalled by a scene or two in The Fountainhead. While not all the characters in The Untethered could be called chaste, the sexual content is mostly implied. It would probably be rated PG-13 if it were a film. Indeed, to remind us of consequences of such things, one woman in the story actually becomes pregnant as a result of some premarital intercourse.

One character reminded me of a female protagonist in The Betsy—a novel about car design and racing by popular author Harold Robbins. In the Robbins book, a woman gets aroused by riding in or driving a fast car. Here fast airplanes turn the woman on.

Like Rand, Southwick appears to dismiss any kind of belief in God. This is perhaps where he misses it. God is creative. He is The Creator. Mankind was made in His image. That means people are creative, too. Heaven will not be boring. The Untethered is a paean to human creativity—which, admittedly, too often is stifled. God appreciates the creativity in us. He made us that way.

I am reminded of the Eric Liddell character in the film Chariots of Fire. He knows God has called him to missionary work, but he also knows that he is capable of running in the Olympics. “God has made me fast,” he says in the film. “When I run, I feel his pleasure.” So it would seem that God would express pleasure when he sees people create a safe and speedy and exhilarating means of transportation. We are his poem,¹ but he has made some of us poets, too.

The Unethered is a Fountainhead for the twenty-first century.

Note
¹ Ephesians 2:10 in the Bible says, “We are his workmanship.” The word that is usually translated “workmanship” or “work of art” or something similar in the original Greek is poema, that is, “poem.” In the ancient Greek culture to which Paul is writing, poetry was considered the most elevated of all the art forms.

Paul Watson. Ice Ghosts. New York: Norton, 2017. Print.

Ice Ghosts carries the subtitle The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition. That is its subject. The Franklin Expedition, mentioned in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, has been a famous mystery about and for explorers. Instead of the Lost City of Z or the Seven Cities of Cibola or the Fountain of Youth, Sir John Franklin led the 1845-1848(?) expedition to find the Northwest Passage—a hypothetical sailing route north of the North American continent between Europe and East Asia.

Franklin was neither the first not the last to attempt this. Indeed, he had been on a similar expedition west of Greenland years before. He had also served as Governor of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) in Australia and made a famous trek across that island. He had been a hero in the Napoleonic Wars and was serving as a captain in the Royal Navy, hence the Sir John. Two of his best friends were the equally hardy Arctic and Antarctic explorer Sir James Ross and the intrepid Arctic explorer and naturalist Sir John Richardson.

Richardson accompanied Franklin on his first major Arctic exploration from 1819 to 1822. He would also be involved in the first of many attempts to find Franklin after his expedition went missing.

Franklin could have retired, but like Ulysses in Tennyson’s poem of the same name, he wanted one more chance at immortality and adventure.

…but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done…

So in 1845, commanding two converted bomb boats, the Erebus and Terror, he set sail from London to the northwest. The voyage was planned carefully, with enough fuel and supplies to last three years. Neither Franklin, his ships, nor any of his sailors ever returned.

The quest to find Franklin, the ships, or any survivors became a challenge for many.

Watson, himself a very experienced news reporter, details the preparation for and the known details of the voyage. The last written observations were sent from Disko Bay, Greenland, in July of 1845. They were last spotted by whalers off the coast of Greenland on July 26, 1845. Watson begins with the perspective of the English who mounted the voyage with special emphasis on Lady Franklin, who persisted on promoting searches for her husband for about fifteen years.

Beginning in 1850, a number of British and American expeditions joined the search. They learn that the Franklin expedition wintered over in 1845-1846 on Beechey Island. In 1854 Scottish explorer John Rae (accompanied by Richardson) met an Inuk hunter who told him of dozens of white men starving on King William Island, just north of the Adelaide Peninsula a few years before.

In 1859 Irish explorer Francis McClintock discovered some cairns erected by Franklin’s men with a brief note saying that their ships had been beset by ice for two years, that Sir John had died in 1847, and that they planned to trek to the North American mainland.

An American expedition in 1869 found some skeletal remains of British sailors identified as members of the Franklin expedition. They found some monogrammed flatware and dinnerware and other personal items as well as the graves of the three men who died the first winter on Beechey Island.

From this point on in Ice Ghosts, Watson mostly tells what the native Inuit people told through their traditions. A significant figure emerges—Louie Kamookak, born in the 1940s and educated in English-language schools. He devoted much time to collecting traditional stories passed on by his people. From tales sounding remarkably accurate of Martin Frobisher to recent hunting expeditions, the Inuit took care to repeat the significant stories and nature lore to pass on.l

Watson notes that many times European people did not believe that uncivilized tribal people had any tales to tell. There was also a confusion with place names, understanding foreign names on both sides, and even different ways of looking at geography.

For example, the prevailing winds in the region of Prince William Island are from the northwest, which the locals consider north. The maps they draw are oriented towards their home village, regardless of what compass direction may be at the top of the map. Mr. Kamookak was able to see things from both perspectives.

Speaking of maps, if there is a weakness to this volume, it is the maps. They are clear and show some of the main locations of towns and discoveries, but the text names many geographic locations which do not appear on any of the maps, so we are left guessing where they might be. I suspect even a lot of Canadians are not adept at Arctic geography.

Anyway, as a result of Louie Kamookak’s work, more artifacts and skeletons from the Franklin expedition were found. Eventually, there were some key discoveries. In 1980, people discovered the wreck of the HMS Breadalbane, a ship that had searched for Franklin and was abandoned while most of its crew survived. In 2010 another such vessel was discovered. Then in 2014 the Erebus and in 2016 the Terror were found at last. The top mast of the Erebus was only nine feet below the surface.

This is an exciting tale. This review just skims it. Because he has been there himself, Watson describes what the “Frozen Deep” Arctic is like. Among other things, Franklin picked what would turn out to be two of the most severe winters on record in the area to sail. In fact, it appears that the two ships may have been icebound through the entire summer of 1846.

As another aside, this reviewer’s uncle used to be a guide in northern Quebec working out of Chibougamau. While far north, it is south of the Arctic Circle and Hudson Bay, and considerably south of where Ice Ghosts is set. Still, the lake ice in that part of Quebec does not usually break up until June and by the end of September the lakes are frozen again.

There is a lot more in the book. Watson does a careful job of documenting and piecing together what happened to Franklin and his men and what happened to others searching for them. One of the men who found documents in a cairn in the late 1850s placed one page with the word martyr on it in Abraham Lincoln’s coffin when it was making its long public railroad journey from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois.

One of the ships searching for Franklin, the HMS Resolute, was abandoned after being on station for nearly four years. It was recovered nearly intact a year later by an American whaler, repaired, and returned to England with much fanfare. When the vessel was eventually decommissioned, Queen Victoria had two desks made from its timbers. One she gave to President Hayes in 1880. The Resolute Desk has been a fixture in the White House ever since, usually serving as the president’s desk in the Oval Office.

One suggestion—read this book in the summertime. I reserved this book from a library, so I had to read it when my time came up this past week. I was reading a book about huge mounds of ice, Inuit, and men dying of Arctic exposure in the middle of two snowstorms. It made me feel even colder. Perhaps it was appropriate and demonstrated how this story came alive, but we have to admit that some of the best stories—heroic, tragic, or both—portray man versus nature.

For those interested in birds, two species and one subspecies of North American birds are named after men featured in this story. The ship’s surgeon who explored in the region several times has Richardson’s Goose, the nominate race of the Cackling Goose, named after him. The name of the rare high Arctic Ross’s Gull honors Arctic and Antarctic explorer James Ross. Franklin himself was memorialized in the name of the Franklin’s Gull. Their names live on.

Charles Simpson. Walking the Footsteps of David Wilkerson. Shippensburg PA: Destiny Image, 2018. E-book.

When I saw this book on a e-book bargain list, I had to go for it. Like many Christians, I have admired David Wilkerson for a long time for his Teen Challenge ministry. It is still one of the most successful drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs there are. Wilkerson himself has written a number of profound books and has spoken with wisdom about a number of social issues.

I have also appreciated the teaching ministry of Charles Simpson for many years. At this point he is an elder statesman in the church but still produces a periodical newsletter. Except that the author is NOT that Charles Simpson!

Charles Simpson, the author of Walking in the Footsteps of David Wilkerson, is much younger. He writes about attending Bible college in the eighties. However, he did serve on the staff of Times Square Church, the church Wilkerson founded in the eighties, and this book shares some of his experiences during that time.

The book is worth reading. Much of it is personal testimony: how Simpson became a Christian, how he ended up starting a church in the Bronx, and his interactions with and observations of Rev. Wilkerson.

Simpson tells in some detail about his experience at Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. He writes that “in my opinion it was the most amazing place on the planet in 1987.” (745)

I understand that. The pastor of the church I attended, kind of father figure for me at the time, left the church in 1987 to take a teaching position at JSBC. Two young men from the church would also go there and go into the mission field.

Remarkably, Simpson only had one semester left to graduate but felt that the Lord was telling him to move on. He noted many other students at the school had a similar leading. They knew nothing about the scandalous behavior of Rev. Swaggart that would soon be made public, but the Holy Spirit was prompting them to leave before the school’s reputation would be altered.

During this time, David Wilkerson had given a personal message to Jimmy Swaggart. While Wilkerson was unaware of things going on in Louisiana, he believed God was telling him to warn Swaggart to repent or discipline would come. Swaggart would later say that he acknowledged the message but believed what he was doing was too important to make any changes.

While much of Walking in the Footsteps of David Wilkerson is testimony, there is also some good teaching in it. When Simpson was working at Times Square Church, the three leaders of the church each had a different motivational gift (see Romans 12:3-8). David Wilkerson was the prophet, as he had demonstrated in his word to Swaggart. Bob Phillips was a teacher who gave detailed expositions of the Word. Don Wilkerson was the exhorter or encourager who motivated people to action.

Pastor Dave’s sermons were like scalpels that cut us open to the core. Pastor Bob then came along and inspected and cleaned our the wound, and then Pastor Don stitched us up and left us in stitches, literally, with his humor and encouragement. (1069)

Some of Simpson’s most moving stories were about his starting a “daughter” church to Times Square Church in a very rough section of the Bronx. For some time, as he got to know the people and they got to know him, things were tentative. He was single at the time and offered to share his apartment with a young man named Samuel who was joining him in the church work. It seemed after Samuel moved in that things became more natural, and people in the neighborhood start treating him as a neighbor. He asked one man why.

“…As soon as Samuel moves in with me, I’m suddenly everyone’s friend. What’s up with that?”
“Well, it’s like this, white boy. Now we know you aren’t prejudiced.”
“And how do you know that?” I asked.
“You got a black man living with you.” (1255)

Another time he encountered a man who had been shot in the head and clearly was dying. the police let Simpson speak to him to share last rites. He said:

“Brother, my name is Pastor Charles, and you’re about to die. A thief on a cross next to Jesus prayed while he was dying and made it into heaven. That same Jesus brought me here now to lead you in prayer to accept Him as young own personal savior. Please repeat after me, ‘Dear God in Heaven…’”

The young man moved his lips and began to say the word “Dear,” but he only got the “D” sound out, “Dah,” as his head moved slightly as he breather his last breath and died. (1275)

He writes that after that intense experience, he was in shock for a few days. Who wouldn’t be?

There is some good teaching from Wilkerson as well. He warns Simpson about trying to do too much. He shared how he caught mononucleosis after starting Times Square Church. I once heard that about a third of all pastors burn out. Wilkerson said “You have to distinguish between your calling and the needs of the people around you.” You cannot do everything.

Wilkerson once said:

The king in America—[you say] there isn’t one. Yes, there is, his name is King Sport and his wife is Queen Entertainment. The devil’s substitute for joy is entertainment. Where there is no joy, you have to fill it up with entertainment. The more joy you have in God, the less entertainment you need outside yourself. (1392)

While Wilkerson was happy to share his knowledge and experience with others, he also warned, “Don’t ever be a carbon copy of me. Instead, be a carbon copy of Jesus.” (2055)

There is much more here. We are reminded that not only did Wilkerson give birth to Teen Challenge, but Times Square Church was instrumental in changing that section of New York City. I recall passing through Times Square in the early seventies. There were prostitutes and “adult” theaters and book stores. Now it is a thriving commercial hub visited by all kinds of people of all ages.

Yes, there are other things that contributed like policing “quality of life” crimes, but the presence and prayer of the people of Times Square Church certainly made a big difference. We are reminded not to be skeptical of what God can do.

Retha and Aldo McPherson. Heaven and Hell: From God a Message of Faith. Shippensburg PA: Destiny Image, 2013. E-book.

The title and marketing of Heaven and Hell is a little misleading. Twelve-year-old Aldo McPherson suffered brain damage in an automobile accident in 2004. He was in a coma for a length of time and has gradually recovered. While comatose, he apparently had some visions of both heaven and hell. But this book is not really about that.

In some ways this is a variation on Becoming Starlight. In this case, the boy’s mother starts taking her Christian faith more seriously. Like Becoming Starlight, we get the story of a witness to the suffering. Like that book, the author’s perspective and understanding changes.

For a long time Aldo could not speak. We are told that even now he speaks in a monotone. But he could write after a few months, so he gradually wrote down things that he saw and things that he says Jesus told him.

Most of this book is about those things. It is truly, as the subtitle suggests, a message of faith.

First, Mrs. McPherson tells how she grew in faith, and continues to grow. Aldo repeats many times that Jesus told him that he would be completely healed. His healing has been progressive but gradual. Still both he and his mother are hanging on their belief of this promise.

Much of this is actually Mrs. McPherson’s testimony.

For forty years of my life, I worshiped God from my flesh. God is a spirit, and that is why He says He is looking for a people who will worship Him in spirit and truth. That is why I could never hear His voice. (185 cf. John 4:24)

That really is the focus of this book. Mrs. McPherson began to empty herself and allow the Spirit of God in. She shares what has happened, and how much of her growth came from things that her son Aldo shared.

There are many other pieces of wisdom.

Thank you, Jesus, that walking on water is safer than staying in the boat—because You are waiting for us on the water! (562)

I think there is a great need for pure friendship between boys and girls, where bodies are kept holy and hearts whole. Our heavenly Bridegroom wants our earthy marriages and relationships to reflect his holiness, so that those couples, whom he unites together, can start their lives with whole hearts, not broken pieces. (906)

[M]ost of My children’s vision is held captive. They either complain about the barrenness of the desert, or stand paralyzed by fear of the deep ocean. Murmuring and fear keep My people in bondage. Take a step of faith, put your head under the water, relax, and behold my beauty. (1293)

The road you are walking on is the road of the cross. The moment you bend your knee before Me, I drape the cloak of humility over you, and intimacy follows. Your battles will be won and fought on your knees. (1366)

Do you know that everybody in hell was warned at some stage, but they didn’t want to listen? God says only repent your sin and lay it down. (2078)

The world teaches the ten-step program to victory, but God says, ‘No My child. There is only one step. Let the sinner die to himself and be raised in Christ.’ (2627)

Grace is the victory over sin, not the rug we sweep it under. (3215)

There is more. Occasionally the tone gets a little preachy, but this is a sincere account of someone trying to live for the Lord and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

She does give testimonies of a few miracles and healings that she has witnessed. The McPhersons are from South Africa and mostly minister there and in other places around the Indian Ocean. She notes:

In the Western world signs, miracles, and wonders have become a topic of debate rather than a matter of faith. The wisdom of man is trying to explain the power of God, and failing to do so. (3795)

Aldo notes that a few times the Lord spoke of His second coming. He says it is “very, very near” but “His bride is not ready yet.” (3816, cf. Revelation 19:7)

As Aldo and Mrs. McPherson speak of the bride, they use Esther as an example. She took a year, obediently following the directions of her foster father Mordecai and the eunuch Hegai. When she approached the king, she did it his way, even if it meant she would be punished: “Esther thought about the king first and her own desires second.” (3934)

Aldo notes that “the sound of the last trumpet will be heard in the Spirit.” (3840) Are you ready? Am I?

N.B. References are Kindle locations, not page numbers.

Vicki Delany. A Scandal in Scarlet. New York: Crooked Land, 2018. Print.

A Scandal in Scarlet is a new book in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery set. Like its predecessors, this light, cozy mystery is set on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In this one, two rival yacht clubs figure prominently as does a restored colonial home now open to the public with docents in colonial dress doing colonial cooking.

The title suggests a couple of actual Holmes stories, A Study in Scarlet and “A Scandal in Bohemia.” The story might be a bit closer to the second title, but it does not borrow much from either tale.

Our narrator-sleuth Gemma Doyle runs a Cape Cod bookshop that specializes in mysteries, especially those connected in some way to Sherlock Holmes. the Holmes tributes and spinoffs go beyond books to include tchotchkes, games, all kinds of adaptations, DVDs, and even life-sized cardboard figures of Benedict Cummerbatch. (Mr. Cummerbatch plays Holmes in a current BBC/PBS Holmes series.)

Compared to Elementary, She Read, this book drops a lot more names of Holmes stories that continue to be written and various other mysteries with Victorian settings. I learned, for example, that Christopher Plummer once played Holmes in a film. I am happy to say that one title the author dropped was Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, a favorite of mine.

The Scarlet House, the colonial farmhouse with the re-enactors, has suffered a serious fire. It can be rebuilt, but it lost a number of antique furnishings. The foundation behind the house organizes an auction in town for the repairs and refurbishing. Gemma’s Uncle Arthur, the silent partner in the bookstore and a Holmes aficionado, donates a first edition of The Lost Valley (1914), the last of the four Holmes novels. Gemma and best friend Jayne, who runs the adjacent tea shop, help out at the auction.

Right before the auction begins, the chairwoman of the Scarlet House committee is found strangled to death in a side room. Clearly, it is murder. And clearly Gemma is going to help solve it.

Like Sherlock himself, Gemma is observant and notes things and connections that other people miss. But it is a real mystery. Kathy, the victim, was popular with most people in town, though the committee, like most nonprofits, did have some members who had different plans for the Scarlet House than Kathy did. But that hardly seems a motive for murder.

Her ex-husband Dan, left Kathy for Elizabeth, a wealthy widow whose first husband died under mysterious circumstances seven years before. Most people in town dislike Elizabeth. She is a suspect, as is Dan.

The ill-tempered gift shop owner Maureen is also suspected because she was seen arguing and threatening Kathy. She “hires” Gemma to help her. At least, she asks for help and uses the term hire even though both she and Gemma know she’ll never pay anyone for any kind of assistance.

Dan’s two adult children have each expressed their unhappiness with their father because he abandoned Kathy for Elizabeth. Elizabeth is actually Dan’s third wife. His first wife died, leaving him with a young son. His daughter is Kathy’s child.

Just when it seems that many of the clues are pointing to Elizabeth for the murder, Elizabeth herself is murdered. Now what?

A few allusions to original Holmes works may or may not be dropping hints, but they do add to the overall enjoyment of the novel. One of the characters is named Mrs. Musgrave. “The Musgrave Ritual” is one of the more curious Holmes stories. Perhaps the reader will come up with a book or film list from the works Gemma recommends to different customers.

Though the book mentions The Valley of Fear a number of times, little appears to relate to that novel in A Scandal in Scarlet. However, there is a great quotation from “The Bascombe Valley Mystery.” While A Scandal in Scarlet has an original plot, an alert reader familiar with “Bascombe Valley” might figure out who the murder was a little sooner.

This character-driven cozy is a pleasant read, just like many of the original Holmes stories.

Neel Mullick. Dark Blossom. New Delhi: Rupa, 2019. Print.

The first book from our reviews with a 2019 date is a true page-turner. It is not a thriller in the usual sense. One could perhaps call it a psychological thriller because the narrator and main character is a psychologist, but there is no psychopath nor is anyone going crazy. It can best be called a mystery with enough plot twists to keep readers guessing until the end. And yet, like any good mystery, it all makes sense.

Our narrator Cynthia tells of her professional relationship with Sam, a widower trying to come to terms with the death of his wife and only child, a son named Will, in a car accident. He struggles with the loss and the ensuing depression.

Cynthia notes in an effective analogy:

The loss of a loved one is like an amputation for the bereaved. Even though he may transition from anger to acceptance eventually, the phantom pain may never go away. (13)

Sam also is frustrated with the Westchester County police whose investigation seems inconclusive. There were no signs of any other vehicle on the road or any animal being struck, yet the car they were riding in just seemed to have skidded off the clear highway and into a tree.

The analyst and client seem to be at cross purposes, though Cynthia seems to be making some progress over time. But it is slow. While Sam pleasantly reminisces about his son, he refuses to even talk about his late wife.

Meanwhile, Cynthia’s own problems come to the fore. She has recently divorced her husband of about twenty years. The husband was abusive, but it turns out he was even more abusive towards their only child, Lily. This daughter does not really want to have anything to do with either of her parents and has been getting into trouble in school. She graduates high school, but those last few months were out of character when compared to her behavior and school record before that. She wonders if her mother was such a good psychologist, why didn’t she see what was going on between her and her father?

Cynthia does get some relief from a retired psychiatrist who was her mentor while she was working on her doctorate, but she is trying to make sense both of Sam’s behavior and her own disrupted family life.

The tale is intense. We understand or try to understand both Cynthia and Sam. Gradually things become clearer and eventually we even learn the truth about the accident that took the lives of Sam’s wife and son. But it is a convoluted path, with several surprises on the way. Like a good Hitchcock or Christie tale, the audience or reader may think everything has been revealed, but there is one more twist, and then maybe one more, and then…

No, there is no murder, but there is mystery. Does Cynthia really see what is going on? Is she really acting professionally? What is Lily trying to do? What is Sam really up to?

Dark Blossom will keep you in your chair reading.

Two personal observations. (1) This reviewer was able to guess the type of flower Sam planted in memory of his son before it was revealed. Can you? (2) Though the story is set in New York City and nearby Westchester County, the book was published in India and uses British spelling and punctuation practices. It even spells god in the lower case, as though it were not a name. That is not a problem for any reader’s comprehension, but since the narrator of the first-person tale is lifelong New Yorker, it just seems a little odd that Cynthia would use these conventions.

John and Carol Arnott. Preparing for the Glory. Shippensburg PA: Destiny Image, 2018. E-book.

John Arnott with his wife pastors the church in Toronto, Ontario, where the Holy Spirit moved in great power in 1994 and sustained a revival for twelve years. Preparing for the Glory, though, does not give much testimony about what happened there. Instead, this book anticipates a coming revival that will dwarf the one that they were involved in.

In North America there were two locations where the mid-1990’s revival was centered: Toronto and the Panhandle of Florida. It was exciting, and churches and people from all over were affected. The revival made Jesus and the Holy Spirit real for many people. While I have not always seen the Holy Spirit’s power the same way in recent years, I remember what He did in those days. Jesus is real and the Bible is true. This is not a subjective opinion. It is based on an external reality that I and many others have experienced.

There are many thoughtful and encouraging ideas shared in this book. This is another one of those books that could just be wholly dipped into a bucket of highlighter ink.

We know from history that in every revival there are church people who are naysayers. But just because God does things in an unexpected way does not delegitimize it. People are hungry for God.

In the same way that a truly starving person doesn’t send the meat back to the chef because he wanted it medium, not medium rare, so the hunger for more of God at any cost makes gratefulness the driving response to anything He does. (7)

The authors repeat the idea, presented or confirmed by others, that the glory to be prayed for will come like a tsunami. John Arnott tells us the Lord said to him, “I am going easy on you now so you won’t be totally shocked and terrified when the real power shows up.” (17)

There is more to come.

I recall reading something by Christian author Rick Joyner that he first heard about one of the revivals (whether Florida or Canada, I do not recall) when a friend called him to tell him about it. His friend excitedly said that at least one quarter of the outpouring was from the Holy Spirit. Joyner was excited because he believed that he had rarely encountered anything more than about five percent.

So we want more of God, but can really handle more? I am reminded of Moses. After he came down from Mt. Sinai after spending forty days in God’s presence, the people could not stand to look at him. They asked him to wear a veil over his face until the glory faded. (Exodus 34:34-36)

The Arnotts also recognize “a historical tendency for leaders of one revival to be the first to criticize the next wave of revival. To that we say, ‘Help me, Jesus.’” (18) God is humbling.

The book notes that God tests us with His Spirit’s power:

He gives you a little and watches to see how you do. When He sees that you are faithful with what He gives you, he knows He can trust you with more.” (38, cf. Matthew 25:21ff.)

We are warned that “Asking for more will require sacrifice,” whether time, sleep, other activities, or our own dignity. (43)

We have to be reminded that “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” (Psalm 19:9) Preparing for the Glory puts it this way:

And the worldview of Heaven is absolutely right and true and perfect…We want Heaven to conform to us, rather than the other way around. But the truth is, that’s never going to happen. (50)

The Lord is God, and we are not.

We are warned not to worry about what others think. God asks, “Me? or them”? God also asks, “Why can’t you love people who see things differently than you?” (62)

If you want to see God move, you have to expect that He will. He is always up to something; it’s up to us to look for it. (77)

Innocent, simple faith that believes what God says is real and that expects Him to do what He says he will do—That is the mark of a mature believer, not complicated doctrine and fancy arguments. (78, dash added)

I choose to not making experience or lack thereof my standard. I will read Scripture, I will listen to others, and I will go where You [God] are moving. (82)

Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen the “best” thing; she had chosen to be in his presence above anything else. Worship and soaking are the primary ways we do that…We set aside everything else and just focus on God. (90)

Soaking is a term that came out of that nineties revival. It simply meant remaining—more or less still—in God’s presence, or entering in and remaining.

Revivals going all the way back to the Middle Ages—and really all the way back to Daniel 10:8—have a record of people falling down in God’s presence. This book explains it this way:

…when people fall down, there are generally two issues being addressed—fear and pride. It’s not the same when you are sitting down and someone prays for you, or even when you are already kneeling; you still get to hold on to your dignity. But when the Holy Spirit takes you down to the floor, He is addressing both fear and pride in you. (96)

Some complain that such things are not only undignified but show a lack of self-control. And self-control is one of the Holy Spirit’s fruits (see Galatians 5:22-23), so how can such things be from God? “But self-control means God gives you control over you to defeat issues of sin and wrong choices, not to have control over the Holy Spirit”! (97)

There are many warnings in the book about doing things, even ministering, to draw attention to yourself.

We believe this next great tsunami of revival will be about the Bridegroom and His Bride, that it will serve as the invitation to a wedding—to the Wedding. To the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (122, cf. Revelation 19:7-9 and Luke 14:16-17)

“A Bride readies herself for her groom by setting herself apart.” (124) The Parable of the Ten Virgins is important (see Matthew 25:1-13). The oil “represents the Holy Spirit in the context of intimacy.” (126) “We must steward the revival, the presence.” (148)

The good news is, as we fall more and more deeply in love, we serve Him not because we are slaves but because we are sons and daughters who love their heavenly Father and who love people and desperately want to see the earth filled with His glory. (159)

The goal of revival is not to make clones. It is to make a family. And families are full of people who are different from one another. (161)

I have been blessed to teach at a Christian school whose founder said: “No cookie cutter Christians!” God is real. He wants us to be real, too.

A friend, now with the Lord, who was in Christian ministry also shared that the Lord had shared with him that His next wave of revival would indeed be like a tsunami. He pointed out that before a tsunami hits, the water recedes far back, exposing the sea bottom to resemble dry land.

So things in the world may appear to be getting “dry” and difficult and unspiritual and ungodly and even hostile. But the big wave is coming. “Ways of life need to rebuilt from the bottom up.” (183)

Some well known Christian figures added to this book. Mission leader Heidi Baker and California pastor Bill Johnson wrote introductions. Randy Clark, Chuck Pierce, and Barbara Yoder wrote afterwords.

One of the afterwords reminds us:

In many popularized bestselling end times works, the focus has been on preparing for collapse, disaster, and the unfolding of a satanic agenda. Well, Preparing for the Glory…calls the body of Christ to be ready, for sure, but to be ready for the prophesied outpouring that God wants to release in all the earth. (186, cf. Matthew 24:14)

Let it come.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. (Isaiah 60:2)

But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. (Numbers 14:21)

Niall Slater. The Second Death of Daedalus Mole. London: Unbound, 2018. Print.

The Second Death of Daedalus Mole has an intriguing title, but it really is a Star Wars-ish space opera. Daedalus Mole pilots a small space ship, usually by himself, carrying freight and smuggled goods. Han Solo anyone? The galactic area is governed by an oppressive, tyrannical green, four-armed race known as the Entari, and there is a rebellion. Empire vs. the Rebellion? It is fun if you like that sort of thing.

Captain Mole picks up a couple of non-human aliens who are escaping the tyranny. Erin is half human and half Entari. Ram is a large, plated, almost reptilian alien. We get their back stories and motivations. The author does a decent job of creating this interstellar world.

There are a couple of interesting details. The Entari conquer other planets—including Earth at one time—and then absorb the conquered culture into their own, thus making themselves to appear intellectually superior to those they rule. For example, we learn that the myth of Icarus told nowadays is about a young Entari , not a young human.

There are also at least three references to Bible verses embedded in the story in a manner similar to what the first Matrix film did. For example, one small planet is known by a numerical designation LK/XVII-29. Anyone familiar with Bible nomenclature would recognize this as a reference to Luke 17:29, perhaps hinting as what happened to that planet at one time.

There has been some controversy in recent years among science fiction fans that some mediocre stories have received more recognition than they deserve because they have embraced political correctness. The “rebellion” to this “empire” call themselves the Sad Puppies. Daedalus Mole jumps on the p. c. bandwagon as Erin and Ram develop an inter-species lesbian relationship. It adds nothing to the overall story, nor is it explicitly pornographic, but, clearly, the story is not for everyone.

Mike Garrett. Innocence Denied. Castle Rock CO: Cross Link, 2018. Print.

Innocence Denied can best be described as a calm thriller. It has the elements of a typical crime/legal novel, but it is gently paced. It may be an interesting situation to some readers, but it is no page turner.

Larissa Baxter is out on bail, having been arrested for murdering her husband. Like the old Columbo television shows, we see the crime at the beginning, so we know who did it. An old friend of Mrs. Baxter’s father named Derrick Walton stages a “kidnapping” and takes her away from her home in Arizona to his home in Alabama.

Their escape is successful. There is no pursuit. Most of the tension in the story comes from Mrs. Baxter having to conceal her identity and hide out until everything blows over. An awkward understanding develops between the two of them, but this is not a romance. The author also tries to convince us there is no “Stockholm syndrome” either.

The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously wrote that any reader or any audience has to commit a “willing suspension of disbelief” in response to any work of art. Innocence Denied requires that. A widower in his fifties, completely unknown to a beautiful socialite in her thirties, convinces her to escape with him to a place she has never been. It almost sounds like a teen fantasy for an older man.

Granted, Mrs. Baxter is desperate. She is accused of a crime she has not committed, and her dead husband’s family is out for revenge. Still, it is hard to imagine anyone willingly going along with a stranger as she does. Mr. Walton is a gentleman when most of the men in Mrs. Baxter’s life have not been so. It was very hard to suspend my disbelief. At times it almost sounded creepy.

Even though the overarching question concerns Mrs. Baxter’s innocence, the story that unfolds is mostly about Mr. Walton. Not only does he have a strange past, but he has some personal secrets he is hiding not only from his captive but from his sister, who perhaps reflects the reader’s response to everything—she has figured out that Mrs. Baxter is the fugitive accused of murder, but she keeps mum to protect her brother.

A reader who is willing to suspend his or her unbelief enough might enjoy this tale. The main setting in an Alabama lake house is pleasant. Mr. Walton makes it appear that his intentions are honorable. Especially with the current #MeToo movement, other readers might simply deny that everything is innocent.

Disclosure of Material: We received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through the BookCrash book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review.

Neal Stephenson. Seveneves. New York: Morrow, 2015. E-book.

I have always considered Neal Stephenson one of the most creative and imaginative writers around today. It is no surprise that he has edited some of David Foster Wallace’s material. If anything, Seveneves is Stephenson’s best, at least, the best of his that I have read.

I read a lot. Not every book I read gets reviewed here. Sometimes it is not worth it. I also read two daily newspapers, and countless student submissions. As a result, I can normally put things down and pick them up at will. I could hardly put Seveneves down. It was fascinating.

Seveneves concerns survival in space. Usually science fiction stories invent technologies which are mere fantasy—things like warp speed and worm holes and time machines. Seveneves is really based on what technology is available nowadays—suborbital rockets, the International Space Station, the Internet, IC robots.

The moon has suddenly exploded. We do not know why. Astronomers simply call the inexplicable cause the Agent. Lunar fragments are orbiting while the bulk of its former volume is in seven large chunks. At one point, two of these large pieces collide splitting one of them in two, making eight large pieces or eight irregular satellites orbiting the earth.

Physicists predict that within two years the earth as we know it will be destroyed. The term they use is Hard Rain (cf. Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Going to Fall”). As gravity draws many of the lunar fragments closer to the atmosphere, they will begin to burn up, the larger ones crashing on the earth. This will cause the entire earth to burn, all but the deepest parts of the seas evaporating and all life on the surface dying. The earth will be uninhabitable for five thousand years.

As a television science popularizer puts it:

The good news is that the Earth one day is going to have a beautiful system of rings, just like Saturn. The bad news is that it is going to be messy. (29)

The first two thirds of Seveneves tells how a very small group of people manage to survive this holocaust by going into orbit around the earth. The International Space Station orbiting the earth is already beginning to mine iron from an asteroid that is also orbiting the earth. Unlike the imaginary devices in most science fiction, the survival tactics are realistic, if extreme, even with today’s technology.

Perhaps the most ambitious survival project is the attempt of a for-profit space pioneer to harness a chunk of ice from a comet (perhaps a little shout out to The Ice Pirates?) which becomes the main source of water for these extraterrestrial colonials.

In addition, the nations of the earth plan what they call the Cloud Ark—a literal swarm of rockets to orbit together like a school of fish following the space station.

In an arguably realistic manner, Stephenson tells how out of the hundreds who are initially launched into space, only a few survive. Many die heroically trying to keep the space colony alive. Some cannot adapt. Of course, there are conflicts and rivalries.

After a few years, only eight women survive. One is beyond childbearing age, so the seven others subject themselves to genetic engineering. One of the seven was chosen to go into space because of her expertise in genetic engineering and epigenetics. These are the Seven Eves, the palindrome ancestors of all the inhabitants of the space colony in the millennia to come. Perhaps Seven Eves is the response to the old palindrome joke, Madam, I’m Adam.

The eldest of the seven is the former President of the United States: politically middle-of-the-road, but terribly self-serving. According to the international agreement, no political leader was supposed to go into space, but she sneaks in. Another person who knows her says:

She is driven to seek power. She finds some way to do that and then backfalls a rationalization for it afterwards. (424)

It appears that the author may have been inspired by a certain female politician who nearly did become president.

There are echoes of Genesis throughout. Obviously, the means of survival is called the Ark. Each of the Seven Eves becomes the foundress or matriarch of at least one nation. Thousands of years later each nationality will be characterized by certain physical and behavioral traits, not unlike the Genesis Table of Nations (Genesis 10).

Some people attempt to build a kind of mountain to assert their power. Tower of Babel, anyone? A minor character who interprets dreams is unjustly accused of a crime like Joseph. And while most of the people in space agree to a new legal system, one of the Eves named Aïda rebels and nearly destroys everyone. Like the first Eve, her sin also involves eating, but not eating a fruit.

Julia the ex-president is sympathetic to Aïda, so there are indications that the space survivors may pay lip service to the new constitution but in reality form a kind of Orwellian Animal Farm where some people are more equal than others.

There are also some conscious allusions to Shackleton: the famous Antarctic explorer whose daring helped save his ship and crew that had become stuck in the ice.

The final third of Seveneves is set five thousand years later as the descendants of the space survivors begin to resettle the cooling Earth. We had read of a group of miners and some naval submariners who attempt to survive the global disaster by staying underground or under the water. Are any of them still alive?

Among other things, Stephenson imagines the language of the space survivors being mostly English, since that was the most widely-spoken language before the Agent, with influences from Russian since they were the other main power behind the International Space Station. The alphabet becomes a mixture of the Latin and Cyrillic, especially since the Cyrillic alphabet has symbols for sounds like “sh” and “ch” that English is at best ambiguous about.

As is typical of most science fiction set in the future, there is no religion. Some people do speak of a Purpose, with a capital P, but it appears to be more of an existential philosophy—we do not really believe in God or an afterlife, but we must live our lives as though there is some kind of higher power. The Lewis Space Trilogy or A Canticle for Liebowitz are exception to this, but even with this kind of existentialism we get a sense of what Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us, that God has put eternity in the hearts of mankind.

It almost seem paradoxical, but given the premise of the moon’s explosion, Seveneves presents a realistic survival story. While it alludes to Genesis, Shackleton, and Orwell, it reminded this reader of the mother of all survival stories: Robinson Crusoe.

In imagining his perfect society of “noble savages,” Rousseau saw no need for books or education for man in his natural state. Such things tend to bring people into bondage and conflict, he wrote. However, Rousseau made one exception. People should read Robinson Crusoe so they can learn how to survive in an uninhabited wilderness.

If any future philosophes get an idea to colonize space—whether it is to create a utopia, to promote space exploration, or to escape a global catastrophe—they should read Seveneves. It may become the mother of any story that presents a realistic, though excruciating, account of the challenge to survive in outer space.