Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Review of A Prayer for the Devil by Dale Allen

The book opens with the scene of Aaron Miller and Presidential candidate Brad Thompson being killed by an explosion in Boston, MA. Aaron Miller's twin brother Luke Miller is determined to find the people responsible for his brothers death. Although he and his brother had been estranged for some time regarding their religious choices, the bond they shared as twins trumped all that discord.


During the investigation into the death of his brother, Luke is sometimes faced with the hefty decision of doing the "priest-ly" thing or allowing hate and anger to dictate his path. For the most part, Luke is able to do the right thing. It makes him human. Allen does a great job at writing a humanized priest who understands that although we're all faced with choices, it's the ones we can live with that define us. Luke is a well developed character but he's probably the only one.

Another aspect of the book that I found to be pretty interesting and I wish a little more developed was the fact that it seemed so easy for the family to want to replace Aaron with Luke. It's almost as if they didn't care that he had his own life with the parish that he would have to get back to once his brother's killer is brought to justice. I understand that because they are twins, it seems like an easy fix by letting him wear his clothes, drive his car, or live his life that the lines can be blurred. But there should not be any replacement for a person and family should know this best.





My last gripe about this book which isn't that big of a deal but it's something that I did notice. I read a lot of political thrillers and it's usually pretty apparent who gets the bad cut. In this particular novel, Democrats got the hammer. The only two that were in the novel were spit flinging pro-lifer and a good for nothing Senator. It's not a huge deal since someone's gotta be the punching bag but it is something I noticed. The other hugely niggling fact in the back drop was the war on Islamic faith and terrorism. For reference read the end.

Overall, I liked this book a lot. There were no characters introduced that did not matter to the plot and there weren't any boring spots. The story moved forward in a very acceptable pace. Once I started reading I was unable to stop. I recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a quick read. This is a great jumping off point for Dale Allen and I'm anxious to see what his next book will be. ***

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