Book Review: The Resurrection by Mike Duran

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great characters, compelling story

Cons: A couple of minor plot points.

The Bottom Line: 

Real characters

Story you can not put down

Read this debut book

Innocent Little Touch Leads to Chaos

There is some debate among authors about whether a good blog can sell books or not.  Well, I'm here to tell you in at least one case it did.  Several months ago, I stumbled on Mike Duran's blog and I keep going back because I enjoy his discussion of Christians and fiction.  So when his first novel, The Resurrection, came out, I didn't hesitate to get it even though it's Christian supernatural fiction and not the mysteries I normally read.  I'm glad I did.

It's a Sunday that Ruby Case will never forget.  During the morning prayer service she has with two other friends, she gets a vision that literally knocks her out.  Then that evening, while at a funeral for a friend's son, she touches the corpse and the dead man sits up.

Meanwhile, Ruby's pastor is fighting battles of his own.  Ian Clark has lost his faith and is just going through the motions.  He can even get rid of the supernatural visitor in his office.  But this resurrection shakes him to his core.  As he and Ruby begin separate investigations into what happened that Sunday, they began to see that it is part of a spiritual battle for their town.  Will Reverend Clark find his faith?  Will it matter in this battle of good versus evil?  Will either of them survive?

I was pulled into the story from the opening pages, and the pace never slacked.  In fact, I always had a hard time putting the book down.  It felt like a couple of plot points got dropped, but that might just be how long it took me to read the book.  (I am just too busy right now!)  Additionally, one thing was brought into the story that I felt was forced and needless, but that might just be me.

The characters were well drawn.  I actually felt like Ruby and Ian were both alive from their first scenes.  The rest of the cast came alive the more we saw of them.  When the book was over, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these characters at all.

While this is definitely a Christian novel, the book didn't have long passages of prayers or characters preaching to each other.  Both Ruby and Ian have spiritual journeys they are on, and I felt those helped develop the characters.  Plus they made me think.  Honestly, the spiritual aspect of things was so well done that other Christian authors could take notes.

Yes, this is a debut novel.  No, you'd never guess from the writing.  It flowed well from the first page to the last, and every time I picked up the book I was quickly lost in the story, not even noticing the pages fly by.

Mike Duran has earned himself a fan with The Resurrection.  I can't wait to see where his next book takes us.