About the book: It’s psychology professor Dylan Foster’s favorite day of the academic year–graduation day. A day of pomp, circumstance, and celebration. And after all the mortar boards are thrown, Dylan and some of her best friends will gather around a strawberry cake to celebrate Christine Zocci’s sixth birthday. But the joyful summer afternoon goes south when a little boy is snatched from a neighborhood park, setting off a chain of events that seem to lead exactly nowhere.

Police are baffled, but Christine’s eerie connection with the kidnapped child sends Dylan on a chilling investigation of her own. Is the pasty, elusive stranger Peter Terry to blame? Exploding light bulbs, the deadly buzz of a Texas rattlesnake, and the vivid, disturbing dreams of a little girl are just pieces in a long trail of tantalizing clues leading Dylan in her dogged search for the truth.

My Review: My Soul to Keep is the third book in a series. While it’s not necessary to have read the previous books in the series to enjoy this one, I think it might have filled in some background information.

This is more than just your typical suspense novel, because there are supernatural elements involved. This ramps up the level of suspense, I think, while also making things a bit creepy. More than just trying to find the bad guy, Dylan is also battling unseen forces and relying on clues from a child with sharp spiritual acuity.

The pacing is fantastic. It took me a few pages to get into the story due to the first person narrative with more academic vocabulary, but once I got into it, I flew through it. I find this book ultimately to be about Dylan. Her character is so well developed. While there is an obvious mystery going on, this is really the story of Dylan. The writing is strong and the plot is interesting, so overall I give this book a nine out of ten.

I want to mention that though there are supernatural elements, this is not your typical Christian fiction fare. You may not agree with all of the ideas the author presents about the unseen realm. Additionally, the content is quite edgy and there is not really any of the usual Christian-speak in the book. This did not detract in any way of my personal enjoyment of the book, and in fact, could make this book appeal to a wider audience.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

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