The Accusation

I was unsure whether or not to purchase this book. It was sitting on the counter of my favorite store in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. The store was Emerald Isle Books, an indie book store in the town in which my family and I vacation every year. The owner of the book store, who also happened to be in the store at the time, was also the author of this book. My skepticism came because I noticed that the book was self published. I asked at the counter, and had the book highly recommended to me. Being that the author was a former Baptist minister and pastor of Chapel by the Sea, a beautiful setting I always see in Emerald Isle, I thought I’d take a chance on reading this book.

Fortunately, I fell into the rhythms of this book, and, before show more too long, I was captivated by it. The story is of a Baptist pastor who receives an anonymous letter accusing him of sexual impropriety with children. This is immediately followed by the abduction of an eight-year-old child from Vacation Bible School in his church. I followed the story of pastor Ron Fowler with much attention. It was a believable story of a devoted married man, father, and clergyman. Police and FBI agents worked with the pastor to solve two puzzles: who wrote the letter and who abducted the child.

I really enjoyed the way the story was told. It was very believable. Moving very slowly from day to day and told in a first person narrative, it revealed the moment-to-moment reactions of the pastor. His reactions included emotions, literary references (which I loved reading, by the way), and personal philosophy. I feared there would be “preaching” in this book, however that was not the case. Even as a Jew, I could appreciate the theological references and how individuals can question God’s role in difficult situations.

For those who choose to read this book, be aware that the very minor grammatical and typographical errors of this self-published book do almost nothing to distract from the story. I recommend this book to others and hope that, one day, this book will be picked up by a publishing company and find even more readers. show less