Brandt Dodson

One cop loses his partner in a shooting and another cop is labeled a traitor and is transferred. Frank Campello and Andy Polanski are thrown together as partners and at first it is anything but friendly.

I didn't really know what to expect when I first received this book. But I have to say from the first page to the last it had me. The characters were well written and I loved them. I want to know more about Andy Polanski and his family, Frank Campello and Christy Lee are great together.

This show more book is labeled a Christian book, but that being said Andy Polanski mentions briefly about his belief in God and thats about it. Don't let that put you off or you will miss out on one heck of a good book. I won this from LibraryThing Early Review and I recommend this book. show less

For a cop drama, this book was pretty good. The two main characters were Andy Polanski, a straight laced by-the-book kind of cop, and Frank Campello, who recently lost his partner and is not happy about Andy turning on his “brothers in blue”. Andy is the Christian in this book and does what he does to honor Christ, but Frank is angry at Andy for being a traitor. The two characters were well written and interesting to get to know.

I enjoyed watching the relationship between Andy and Frank show more grow. As a reader, you know that Andy is doing what he is doing for Christ. You know he is doing the right thing and you end up pulling for him. At the same time, the author gives a very compelling view of the other officers involved in the story. They just see someone who betrayed their own; something which is just not done, no matter if you thought your were doing the right thing or not. You know that Andy is a good detective and want him to succeed, but you also feel for the other detectives who just can’t trust him. An author being able to pull off both sides of a very polarizing subject and make the reader feel sympathy for both sides is something you don’t see often, and I was very impressed.

However, the book was mainly told from Frank’s perspective, which sometimes made Andy come across as a naïve sap who is hiding behind his Bible and doesn’t care what that means to his family, friends, and coworkers. Now, I do agree that Christians should live their lives based on what Christ did for us and should not compromise. But Andy sometimes came across as just barreling through life not caring about the consequences of his actions and not explaining to people why he was doing what he was doing. Of course you should stand up for what you believe in, but sometimes there is a compassionate balance at play as well.

The only other problem I had with this story was that the murder mystery ended up being a bit too convoluted. The characters (good and bad) each had back story which somehow ended up being tied into the main story. This probably wouldn’t have been a problem if we could have learned about their back stories in a previous book instead of snippets throughout this one. By the end of the book, I was just glad that the murder part was over. I wanted to focus on the characters again.

I really enjoyed the way the author showed the growth of the relationship between the two main characters. I finished the book wanting to know more about the two and where their friendship and partnership is going to go. And, as far as murder mysteries go, though this one was complicated, it was still good. I enjoyed this book despite a few issues. show less

When a good cop exposes bad cops, you would expect that he will be the hero. Well - yes, he is. But not for the other cops. And not for a cop that just lost his partner.

This is how the book opens. And what you follow is what you would expect - noone is what they look, corruption is in places one least expect, people start turning up dead and somewhere along the lines there is love, new partnerships and a lot of action and backstabbing. A lot of the cliches of the genre are there but then show more you almost cannot write this kind of story otherwise. I wish people stop setting these stories in Chicago though.

And then Dodson remembered that he is actually writing a Christian book - and threw in something about it. Almost like a patch. And an afterthought. It did not change anything and if the parts were removed, the book will not loose anything in any way or form. Which suits me fine - I almost passed on this book because of the publisher and the expectation. show less

I loved this book and found it to be a very interesting read. Sons of Jude is about an officer who's partner has been killed in action and opens with Frank returning to work after time off recovering from it - only to find out he has been teamed up with a "traitor" to the force.

You have a lot of suspense, action, surprises all the way through the book and the climax to the story was a surprise for me (as well as Frank himself). The book is labeled as "Christian" suspense but other than show more mentioning that Polanski is a believer not much else is mentioned and there are no scripturally based sections in the book - personally I would say it's been labeled that way. That being said there are no bedroom scenes and the nearest to swearing is "_____ swore under his breath" or "he cussed" and that isn't our lead characters in the book but the criminal element doing any of that. There is some drinking in the book but it's mostly Frank having a beer.

I'm really looking forward to reading book two. I'd love to know more about Frank and Christi (a reporter) and I'd like to see what else happens within the Police Department - did they adequately clean it up?

This will be a series of books - all police based and if you know someone (guys or gals) who loves a great political, gritty type of thriller it would make a GREAT book for Christmas, Secret Santa, Birthday - or Just Because!

I was given a copy of Sons of Jude by Kregel Publishing to read and review on GivingNSharing. I was not required to write a positive review and no money exchanged hands. This is my opinion only and not someone elses. show less