Wonders Never Cease by Tim Downs

Kemp McAvoy is living the hard life of a UCLA night nurse while his aspirations are to be an anesthesiologist. These aspirations were put to rest, however, when his residency at Johns Hopkins was rejected because of drug abuse. Now, he lives with his girlfriend and her "loony" daughter from a previous marriage. Kemp is tired of being strapped for money. He wants to be free. The opportunity presents itself when he is assigned to monitor an aging movie star who was the victim of a car accident. She has been put into a medically-induced coma to prevent her brain from swelling, but an "angel" by the name of Kemp McAvoy is about to lower her drug dosage slightly and appear to her with a message she is proclaim to all the world. With the help of her agent and a struggling publisher, they will write the ultimate bestselling book about her experiences in the coma. But little do they know that they are tangling themselves up in their own web-all because they practiced to deceive.

Tim Downs is back. That was my first thought when I finished his latest release. He has returned to his land of originality after being exiled to typical island for too long. Through superb characters and a highly original plot, Tim has written himself a second five star novel.
Kemp is one of the most imperfect leads I have ever met. This is probably because he has an underused personality. He rivals Nick Polchak for one of the best leads ever developed. I cannot think of a single character in this plot who does not have a personality. One of the best things about the character department is that there is no real villain. If anyone is a villain, it's Kemp. Tim Downs already proved that his character developing skills are exquisite, but he did not stop just because he has now become popular. He is truly a master of characters.

The plot is most similar to Deceived by James Scott Bell, yet it is unlike any other plot. It is a highly underused plot style I call Deception. It begins with an elaborate money-making scheme and becomes more and more complicated as more people get involved, making this book more of a comedy than any of Tim's other books. The dealing and the scheming don't end until the book ends. While this book does not have a smashingly original end like that of Chop Shop, the entire book is a constant; it is wholly original rather than partly. Not only is there nothing wrong with this book; there are also many things right about it.

In short, Tim Downs is a man to be reckoned with because his writing career is far from over. No, he is only getting started with the great impression he will make on Christian fiction.

5 stars