CFBA Blog Tour: Divine Appointment

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing THE DIVINE APPOINTMENT (Howard Books June 5, 2007) by Jerome Teel. And I’m backdating this a week late, and Tomorrow (July 4th) is my fifth anniversary, so this will be short.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jerome Teel is a graduate of Union University, where he received his JD, cum laude, from the Ole Miss School of Law. He is actively involved in his church, local charities, and youth sports.

He has always loved legal-suspense novels and is a political junkie. He practices law in Tennessee and is at work on a new novel.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Small town southern lawyer Elijah Faulkner practices to fight injustice. But when he takes on a case to defend a philandering doctor with a pregnant wife in a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial, Eli is not so sure he is on the ‘right’ side.

Add to this a dead (fictional) Supreme Court Justice Martha Robinson and a definitely fictional President Wallace, who believes God put him in the presidency for just such a time as this…to make a Divine Appointment. Some will stop at nothing, including murder, to prevent his confirmation by the Senate.

A lobbyist with a vendetta, a small-time Mafioso, a cub investigative reporter looking to get his feet wet, and a corrupt political machine combine to explore the anatomy of a murder, and the ripple effect across the country.

Andrea’s Review:

It’s written in a style I found vaguely reminiscent of Dragnet, with description dropped in every time I started to forget I was reading a novel, creating what Dan Weaver calls a reader bump.

In keeping with my formerly private vow to be honest about my biases, I prefer strong View Point writing rather than a narrator that reserves the right to withhold from the reader the other half of view-point character’s phone conversation and tells us what characters are thinking rather than just spitting it out. And especially not one that tells us what they’re feeling rather than describing the feeling’s symptoms and letting us make the diagnosis.

I also apparently still think like the author, though, because I deduced right away who the reporter’s anonymous informant was, and found it annoying/a tad unbelieveable that the cub reporter was astonished to discover this 200 plus pages later.

Like his inspiration (Esther), there’s not a whole lot to comment on theologically, aside from unbelievers being true to their sin nature and reaping the consequences thereof. Fairly positive and hopeful for a novel about political corruption, Teal stays true to the spirit of the book of Esther quite well, and his other twists worked great. Political novel aficionados who don’t share my preferences as strongly will absolutely love Teal’s Divine Appointment.