Courageous Joy

*Drummer in the Dark* by T. Davis Bunn

I gave up the Christian Suspense/Mystery Genre some years ago. The plots seemed predictable and the canned preaching less than inspiring. The characters were doing fantastic things. I switched to mystery cozies (which also has fantastic characters but minus the predictability and preaching). However, this book caught my eye at the library.

I enjoyed this book. It was moral. I didn’t have to skip pages of activities that offend my faith. The suspense was “realistic” and well done. The characters intrigued me. Without giving the plot away this book centers on politics and global finances and was very interesting. The characters exhibit a real faith in Jesus but their discussions seemed to be more natural and what you would expect from Christians in suspense…instead of “preaching”. I think that maybe the genre has realized that most buying Christian fiction to relax are already Christians and the long pages detailing salvation is preaching to the choir? That sounds rude and I don’t mean it to….I’d recommend this book to any (Christian or not) who loves a good mystery suspense…but doesn’t want to wade through lots of violence.

I do plan to check this genre out more in the days to come. I’d love to hear of other books by this author that you have read and enjoyed. I’d also love to hear of other Christian authors you know of who have written suspense/mystery. Point me to the shelves. {G}