Private Justice

Never in my life have I read a book so fast. Certainly not one with 375 pages.I'm normally a slow reader. But I inhaled this one in about two long evenings.

It's a murder mystery that grabbed me. I mean g-r-a-b-b-e-d. Me. And I'm not easily grabbed by novels. To be honest, I've poo-pooed many novels, especially mysteries because they tend to be either (1) too predictable, (2) filled with cliches, or (3) not redemptive/a complete waste of time except for entertainment alone. (Entertainment is okay, but I like to think than even fiction has taught me something. I'm a fuddy-duddy that way, I guess.)

For some strange reason, I wanted to read a novel last week (probably to celebrate SCHOOL BEING OUT!!!) and saw this one on my shelf. I was just going to sit on the porch swing with it and wait for dinner to finish in the oven till Paul got home. I was thinking "Oh, a chapter or two and this'll just prove my point about mysteries."

I was wrong.

When Paul pulled in the driveway, I could barely lift my eyes off the page to kiss him hello. I also didn't want him to be far from me because the plot was getting scarier. If I hadn't had nail polish on, I probably would've bitten a nail or two.

Published in 1998 as the first book in the Newpointe 911 series, Private Justice could be old material if you're into mysteries. It's not been my genre, as I said, so it's new to me, and I can't wait to check out book 2 called Shadow of Doubt.

Terri Blackstock is the author. The main plot is that someone is killing the wives of firemen in Newpointe, Louisiana, and no one can figure out why they are the target or who will be next. The mystery is Christian fiction and there is some low-key but (for me) much-needed marital counsel tossed in it as a subplot. It's not preachy counsel, but it is biblical and smoothly woven into the text. Go figure. A good Christian murder mystery. Oxymoronic? Maybe, but totally gripping.

Check it out. Private Justice, by Terri Blackstock.