The Rising, A Review

The Rising is a contemporary suspense novel by Lynn Chandler Willis

Detective Ellie Saunders’ world is flipped on its axis when the homicide victim in her latest case, a six-year-old boy, comes back to life. The case becomes a life-threatening adventure in finding out who the little boy is and who beat him to death. And how is it possible to come back to life? Without any signs of the beating that killed him? Not a wound, a bruise, or mark of any kind.

The complications grow as the word of the boy’s miraculous recovery sparks a media frenzy. She is assigned a new partner, Jesse Alvarez, a man she once slept with. A man who seems more intent on irritating her than helping her. A handsome young doctor soon becomes an antagonist when he blocks Ellie’s efforts to question the boy. The Doc believes Ellie’s intensity threatens the boy’s emotional stability.

The miracle of the boy’s rising from the dead has Ellie questioning her own faith and drawing her closer to her estranged father and stepmother.

Ellie embarks on a mission to discover who the boy is, and who does he belong to. She discovers an abduction from several years earlier, a collision with a deer the evening before the boy was found, and an abductor who is willing to kill to remain free.

I give this novel 4 stars. Two factors keep this from being a five star review:

First, I figured out who the perpetrator was shortly after the character entered the story. I think adding other believable suspects would have helped increase the tension, and kept the “who done it” factor stronger and longer.

Second, Ellie’s former lover, Jesse Alvarez, is the main Christian influence in the story. His move from sinner to Christian feels too quick and too slick, like he’s using faith to manipulate. I think his witness could have been more powerfully drawn, and made his Christianity more believable.

Overall, believable characters in dangerous situations make for an exciting page-turner. I’m looking forward to the next Lynn Chandler Willis novel.