"Through the Fire" by Shawn Grady

This is the debut novel from veteran fireman Shawn Grady, and it appears that the man has a talent for weaving an engaging story. The story centers around a fireman named Aidan who is still reeling from the accidental death of his father (who was also a fireman). As the book unfolds, Aidan passionately searches for answers regarding his father's death. He is so passionate, in fact, that it costs him his bride-to-be. With some help, Aidan begins to unravel the mystery around his father's death - while daily risking his own life. 

The story is solid and well-written. Shawn Grady also does a great job of letting an outsider like me peek into the daily life of those heroes who save lives every day. The details are not overwhelming - just enough to educate me on the ways of the firefighter. There is a back-story of Aidan's distance from the faith of his father, but I felt like it was a token nod to the target audience (mainly Christians). In fact, all of the scenes in the book that dealt with salvation or Christianity were EXTREMELY vague. So much so that the power of the Gospel is weakened to a degree. There is a difference between avoiding "preachiness" and muddying the water so much that it is no longer clear. I fear the author made the water just a tad too murky. In fact, the scenes of the character getting drunk were more clearly articulated than any of the Christian elements.

One other criticism that I have is the choice of adjectives and nouns used. I'm not talking about swear words. I'm talking about words I've never heard before. I like to think that I have a fairly decent vocabulary - but there were probably two dozen words in the book (maybe more) that were so uncommon that I had to break out the dictionary. This is not a bad thing, per se. Books SHOULD be educational! But it got wearisome. One could picture the author sitting at his writing desk with a fat thesaurus in hand, fervently flipping through the pages to locate the ideal word to use. Sometimes people just want to be moved by the story, not flabbergasted by the words.

All in all, I look forward to reading the next two books by Shawn Grady. I give "Through the Fire" 4 out of 5 stars.

Update on Book Reviews

I thought I would give you an idea of the books that I am planning on reviewing soon:

Recently finished reading, but not yet reviewed:
1. Passages Book 3: Annison's Risk - by Paul McCusker
2. Passages Book 4: Glennall's Betrayal - by Paul McCusker
3. The Man Who Was Thursday - by G. K. Chesterton
4. The Chronicles of Narnia (entire series) - by C. S. Lewis
5. The Knight - by Steven James

Have not yet finished reading (yes, I typically read about 5 books at a time):
1. Enemies Among Us - by Bob Hamer
2. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy - by Eric Metaxas
3. Unveiling the End Times in Our Time - by Adrian Rogers
4. Worship Matters - by Bob Kauflin

Will start reading soon:
1. The Bishop - by Steven James
2. Dreamhouse Kings Book 4: Timescape - by Robert Liparulo
3. Inside Threat - by Jason Elam and Steve Yohn
4. Going Deep - by Gordon MacDonald
5. Book of Days - by James Rubart