Look, I get that not all Christians are perfect and that all of us struggle with hypocrisy, but so do atheists, so do agnostics and so do the “cool” protagonists in books.

I have never read Tami Hoag before and reading this book I can tell that she is a great writer. I love it when books draw the reader in and an hour can pass by without you even knowing it! Mrs. Hoag is this type of writer, but the way she portrayed any Believer in her book was like a punch to the kidneys. The sleazy adulterer is a beloved Christian leader, the snobby sheriff’s fiance is a gossipy Christian woman who is a push-over. The devout Christian parents abandon their daughter in her hour of need. Not one of the faithful helped, loved or was kind to any person in the book. Not one! I know I shouldn’t expect much from the world, but goodness me. At least in some books there is a tiny smidgen of kindness from a Christian. Some books don’t mention Christians at all and that’s fine by me also. To top it all off though, all the protagonists that Mrs. Hoag develops in a glowing light are atheist who shake their tiny fist at God. They constantly point out the hypocrisy in Christians – never seeing their own, and blame God for everything.

All this said, the book is very well written, but I will not be reading her again. She is obviously biased in her writing and I was offended at how Christians were personified. I know we are not perfect, knowing our imperfection is what helps us rely on Christ’s work not ours, but the jabs towards Christians was more than I wanted to take. I also am not an easily offended reader, but unfortunately for me Mrs. Hoag took her level of prejudice for Christians to a height I didn’t want to experience. It seemed forced on some of the characters and jolted the believeability of those specific characters. The obvious contrast between the villains and the heroes was plain to see that if the character was a villain, he had Christian roots or sayings and if character was a hero, they mocked God.

No thanks Mrs. Hoag. But if you like dark murder mysteries,and don’t mind stereotypical prejudice against Christians, then you will like this book. Personally, I didn’t.

What can I learn from this? I realize that there is artistic license in all works of fiction, but I don’t have to like it. I also realize that authors put a little of themselves into their work, but I don’t have to buy those works. That’s the beauty of a free opinion, and this is mine. We as Christians, do need to work on our testimony. We fail all the time to portray the grace to others that was so freely given to us by Jesus. I don’t know one Christian who doesn’t struggle with their sin and who has a tendency to hide those struggles leading many to think of us as hypocrites. Let us live godly lives, constantly being aware of our testimony because the world is watching us.

I encourage you with these verses found in Titus 2:8-9 – In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed to have nothing bad to say about us.