Serenity by Harry Kraus

Adam Tyson came to the sleepy town of Serenity, North Carolina, to create a non-descript life for himself, where no one would find him or recognize him. He has taken the job as the head surgeon at the local hospital, and he hopes that he will lead a quite life. That is, until Beth Carlson, the head nurse, walked into his life and made him wonder if he could love again. But when she is suddenly hospitalized due to a car accident, she fights for her life. What's worse, there seems to be something suspect going on behind the scenes in Serenity-a strange operation no one seems to know about or care about. Adam finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy-one besides the one he has created for himself. Before he knows it, the truth about his identity will come out and he will have to face his past.


As is his custom, Harry Kraus has crafted a an anti-run-of-the-mill plot driven by good characters. However, the end of this book is not as good as it could be, therefore costing this book the five star rating.

Adam and Beth are interesting characters, especially since neither one of them is perfect. Adam is perhaps one of Harry's best leads, maybe one of the best ever created, since no author has tried to create one like him. There are few characters in this plot, but none of them are as intriguing as Adam. The villains are a bit typical and tend to wear on the character department, but they are not as bad as they could be. Basically, Harry Kraus is still a master of imperfect characters.

From the start, the foundational idea behind this plot was original. Harry Kraus purposed to craft this plot around Adam's mistakes, making it interesting. However, this purpose became slightly muddled when Harry introduced two typical villains that the book could have gone without. Their purpose is predictable and uninteresting. This purpose climaxes into a cheesy showdown with a predictable outcome. However, the saving grace of the book was the fact that the inevitable romantic subplot did not end up as expected from the beginning. Even though he reverted back to his old ways of cheesy villains, Harry still created enough original elements to put this book on the Elite List.

Harry Kraus is perhaps the best author nobody talks about because no one likes his blatant originality. However, this reputation has gained our respect.

4 stars

Fated Genes by Harry Kraus

Dr. Brad Forrest is a pediatric surgeon who is married to his job in his heart and married to his wife on paper. Though he loves his wife and son, he loves his job more and thus spends nearly every waking hour at the hospital. However, this is wearing on his marriage. His wife Julie feels abandoned and decides to look for the love she craves elsewhere. Meanwhile, Brad has been promoted to work with Dr. Web Tyson, a surgeon looking to become the new surgeon general of the US. However, Web is not all he appears to be. With his family life in shambles, he is a partner in an illegal scheme to preform research on aborted fetuses or dead embryos. While this is not entirely evil, it is driving him and his partners to tell lies to the parents about their babies in order to get what they need. Lenore, the instigator of the operation, who doubles as the leader of a Satanic cult, is doing everything she can to control Web.

While all of this is going on, Dr. Matt Stone returns from Kenya with his wife Linda to work a new job alongside Brad and Web, and gets caught up in the mess himself. Everything comes to a head in room 502 of the hospital one night, and only the prayers of Brad's grandmother and her prayer warriors can stop it.

Harry Kraus has sure had a bumpy writing career. He has gone from writing junk like this to writing radical originality such as Perfect. But the mistakes in Fated Genes cannot be easily ignored. The lack of good characters, a victim lead, two evil villains, an evil genetic scheme, the return of Matt Stone, a last chapter conversion, a last chapter reuniting, and a perfect prayer warrior grandmother make for a stressful read to say the least.

The characters are flat out bad. There are the good guys, the bad guys, and confused Brad. While Brad and Julie have their imperfection, they never make any real mistakes as a result of it. The villains are ridiculous, frequently spouting profanity detonated by symbol sequences such as #?!?@. Seeing these symbol sequences on every page can wear one out. Matt Stone is back doing what he did best in Stainless Steal Hearts-absolutely nothing useful. Harry Kraus did a really good job at making him an overused useless character.

There are many plot points it seems like the editor forgot to edit. Julie's affair, Lenore's cult, Web's Sodomite son, Web's relationship with a useless character named Tammy, Matt Stone's involvement, a standoffish group of retired people and a car chase at the end are completely unnecessary and make one wonder what this book was like before it was edited or if it was even edited at all.

Even if all of this nonsense was discarded, it still could not account for the completely perfect end in which Harry went lengths to fix every broken thing. It makes one wonder how Harry made his transition into writing originally at all. But we are grateful that he did so and did not continue writing books that tarnish the name of Christian fiction with such cliched nonsense. Fated Genes makes one appreciate his newer books all the more.

1.5 stars

The Chairman by Harry Kraus

Nathan McCallister was a police officer-until a tragic shooting ended his career and landed him in a wheelchair. He is a C3-4 quadriplegic, which means he has lost all use of his arms and legs. He relies on his mouth stick, his wheelchair, his wife Abby, and his hired attendants to help him preform simple daily tasks. Because of this, he has turned into a different person. He feels like a failure because he can no longer work a job. Abby's job is now the sole source of income, so she leaves there daughter home alone with Nathan. Nathan fears for his daughter because he would be inadequate if something were to happen to her. On top of that, Abby seems to hiding something from him-something that is keeping her from loving him the way she used to. On top of that, Nathan is trying to remember what happened the day he was shot. He can't seem to remember anything about the accident.

Dr. Ryan Hannah is a neurosurgeon who is obsessed with fixing the mistakes he's made in the past in order to successfully discover a cure for quadriplegics everywhere. But when the baboon he had been experimenting on suddenly disappears, he becomes frantic to discover a new subject. When he and Nathan cross paths, Nathan agrees to undergo experimental surgery by Ryan's hands.

Harry Kraus, as usual, demonstrates his expertise in the medical field with this novel. Any other author, even though they would research the subject, could not match his first hand experience in the field. His realistic writing style forces him to have to end his books realistically, thus creating five star books left and right. Harry has done it again.

As usual, Nathan, Abby, Ryan, and several other characters are very well-developed characters. Not only do they have personalities, but they are also all imperfect character. Nathan is not treated as a victim. Ryan is not, thank God, an evil genetic scientist like Harry could have easily portrayed him as. All the characters are very real, as Harry has become a master at.

The Chairman

is not marketed as suspense, and it is not suspense. I am so glad Harry did not try to force this book to be suspense. It is a normal plot, nothing dramatic or sensational.

The best part of the entire book is its original and realistic end. Not many authors out there would do what Harry did in this situation. This was a book whose rating pivoted on its ending, and Harry delivered again. He did not resort to a typical, public end that would have deserved a low rating, but he took the step forward to do something original.

The market needs more authors like Harry Kraus.

5 stars

All I'll Ever Need by Harry Kraus

Claire McCall and John Cerrelli desperately want to get married. They want their wedding to be perfect. They want to stop dancing around the issue and actually get married. They've already tried for two books, and now they're at it again for a third. But things keep getting in their way, such as Claire's attempted rapist escaping from jail, Claire being sued by a patient for inducing euthanasia without permission, Claire's Huntington-diseased father wanting to die, and John being stalked by a delusional woman in his workplace. All these things come to a head as it seems like everything wants to keep them from getting married.

I liked the first two books in this series for their realism in the medical field and in life. But a third book full of more tragedies for Claire and John is just too much. All good things must come to an end. Harry could have easily ended the series with For the Rest of My Life.

First of all, the characters have lost their personalities and imperfection. Where John was a good original male lead in the previous book, he is typical and perfect in this book. Claire has become more of a victim than an imperfect character who makes bad choices. The rapist and John's female stalker are both typical characters as well. I can only think of one good character this time.

Too many bad things are fixed in the end. This is where Harry Kraus thrived in the first two books: imperfection in the end. But with this third book, he has pleased the public with last page-perfection. There were plenty of opportunities for imperfection, but Harry didn't take any of them. Imperfection has always been his specialty, so without it, he isn't very interesting. I liked one part at the end-the part that involved the only imperfect character.

Harry just went too far with the Claire McCall series. He just had to write that third book. He had everything going just fine at the end of For the Rest of My Life. Everything was great. The Claire McCall series was an Elite series. But All I'll Ever Need was ruined by its typical nature. I know Harry can do better than this.

2 stars

For the Rest of My Life by Harry Kraus

Claire McCall is living the life of a country doctor-busy, harried, and frustrated. As she waits for test results to see if she is positive for the Huntington's disease gene she may have inherited from Wally, her father, her mother has to daily deal with the stress of a Huntington's patient. Wally cannot control a majority of his actions, now including bodily functions. Della has turned into a new person ever since her husband's change.

But Claire doesn't have time to think about this with patients constantly coming in with any number of ailments. A recurring theme of rapes among several female patients bothers her when she hears the rapist wears a surgical mask. She fears for herself and for the women she knows.

John Cerelli is still struggling with his relationship with Claire. He wants to get re-engaged to her, but he wants to wait until she reads her test results. Claire believes he is holding back on her for this very reason and descends deeper into depression and frustration.

Lena Chisholm lives a rough life with her ever-drunk husband. When he's not drunk, he's a saint; when he is drunk, he's a devil. He drinks almost every night. Lena is fed up with it. She confronts him after he attacks her one night, and their relationship takes a strange twist.

Harry Kraus has done an excellent job at making the Claire McCall series extremely realistic and believable. Only someone who is in the medical field daily like he is could pull this off. Many frustrating things happen to the characters, and Harry does a good job of not bombarding the reader with tragedy after tragedy.

The characters remain to be imperfect, as usual. Harry does a good job at keeping this cast of characters realistic. I especially like the way he develops John Cerelli. Normally, an author would make a male lead like him perfect, but Harry does the opposite.

The identity of the rapist wasn't all that surprising to me, but it was appropriate because he had a good explanation behind him.

A few too many tragedies occurred at the end of the book, but this does nothing to detract from the rating. The point is, not everything turns out perfectly in the end like some authors would have it. This is Harry's specialty and the reason we like his books.

5 stars

Could I Have This Dance? by Harry Kraus

Claire McCall has just started working as an intern at a university hospital, though she one day wants to be a full-fledged surgeon. When she arrives at her new job, she finds that life in the medical field isn't all that easy or fun. It's a daily struggle against the odds for survival.

Being an intern means leaving her fiancee behind in her hometown. She only sees him on rare visits, and this puts a huge strain on their already fragile relationship.

On top of that, her alcoholic father, Wally, has been behaving very strangely even though he's been off the bottle for several years now. Her mother doesn't know what to make of her husband's strange behavior. She's at a loss for what to do about him, so Wally's mother steps forward with a dark, hidden truth about their family tree that could shed light on his condition.

On top of that, Clay, Claire's twin brother, is following in the footsteps of his father as a drunkard. He's always getting into trouble and coming to Claire to bail him out.

If Claire's life isn't complicated enough already, she gets slapped with a lawsuit from an angry parent who claims she let his daughter die on her shift.

While it seems like this book is wrought with woe and tragedy, think again. These hardships are well-displaced throughout the book and are not consecutively introduced. They are woven into the realistic, everyday life of a medical intern who has struggles like everyone does.

Harry Kraus' number one asset in his books are his imperfect and believable characters. We are all imperfect human beings, so why not have our fictional characters be like us?

I believe it would be hard for any author to correctly handle all the issues I listed above in my summary in one book alone. There are more small ones besides the ones I mentioned, but I must say, Kraus handles them like the Elite author he is.

Kraus brings up an interesting issue with this book that not many of us outside the medical field think of: how Huntington's disease can be mistaken for alcoholism. Only Kraus' expert knowledge in the medical field could handle an issue like this.

The one drawback to this book that keeps it from being Kraus' usual five star rating are two things that worked out right in the end. Normally, I would let this slide, but they are unrealistic in the way that they play out.

All in all, Harry Kraus is one of the most unsung authors on the Christian market.

4.5 stars

Stainless Steal Hearts by Harry Kraus

Matt Stone is a surgeon just trying to do his best in the medical field. Every day he has patients that need his special attention. But one patient in particular opens his eyes to a conspiracy.

When a pregnant woman in a car wreck is brought to the hospital, he has no other choice but to steal the premature baby out of her womb before the mother dies. After identifying the mother, he learns that the father of the baby is pro-choice candidate for Governor, Layton Redman. Layton does his best to cover up the illegitimate child, and the conspiracy Matt discovers.

Dr. Simons is a co-worker of Matt's who is in charge of new cutting-edge research-stealing the hearts out of aborted fetuses to give them to babies with heart problems.

While this seems like it would be a very good issue to try to present to the reader in a novel, Harry Kraus immediately condemns the issue and doesn't, in my opinion, give an objective view as he does in his later books.

Dr. Simons is immediately portrayed as an evil mad scientist who wants to abort all babies and steal their hearts. He incessantly uses profanity, which is denoted by symbol combinations like &#?!@. The funny thing is that this begins halfway through but once it begins it is very frequent. These such sequences litter his dialogue and are juvenile at best.

Matt Stone has little to no purpose in this book, except for completing the other half of the very cheesy romantic subplot. This romantic subplot takes up most of the book. Besides that, he is a very perfect character.

There is also a subplot portraying a couple who is struggling to have a child through all the usual methods. Unfortunately, I could tell from the first time this subplot was introduced where their baby was going to come from.

But even in all this muddle, Kraus demonstrated a small part of his deep-seeded originality that would come out later in his writing career. I would like to see him re edit this work and release it again.

The great thing is that we can look back as this and see how far Harry has come in the past fifteen years.

2 stars

Salty Like Blood by Harry Kraus

David Connors is a surgeon who's obsessed with his daughter first and his job second. He has spent most of his life building a protective bubble around his young daughter. But when his Rachel disappears from a beach, his life begins to spin out of control. Rachel was the only thing holding his marriage together, and now his wife has withdrawn into herself.
David immerses himself into his job and into finding his little girl, while one of his wife's old boyfriends pays her a visit to "comfort" her.
It's a very well executed, complex plot that is wholly based upon the imperfect characters, which is what Harry Kraus is good at. Every characters has a deep, imperfect past that is not fully revealed up until the end. And some of it is not revealed at all.
The one downside to their pasts is that it is not very well distinct from the present. Though there are scene breaks, there are no dates or italics to distinguish between past and present, so it gets a little confusing.
David's days as a surgeon are very realistic and believable. Every patient that comes in doesn't have something to do with the mystery. There isn't a tragedy or a near-death experience every day; it's just normal. Some patients work out, some don't.
Though the end seems typical at first, you have to read on through it to discover the meaning for it all. It's very original.
The end also does not sew up all the loose ends like one would expect him to. It leaves several aspects of the plot to an imperfect end.
Harry Kraus has proved himself to be one of the best authors on the market with his plots based on imperfect characters. This also makes him the most underrated author.
5 stars

Perfect by Harry Kraus

I can't really say anything about Harry Kraus as an author because Perfect is the first book I've read by him. But I can comment about the plot.
Perfect is about an accident reconstructionist, Wendi, who is married to a prominent surgeon. She has it all-a seemingly unlimited supply of money, the love of her husband, popularity and renown in the community, family support-but it's all a sham. So she decides to try to make that right by running away with her piano teacher.
But that plan is shattered as she watches her lover's car go up in flames. As a twist, her husband must operate on him. When he is stabilized, things get hairy, including devastating news from her sister, and direct contact with her lover's family.
But her husband, Henry, is having troubles of his own. Behind his organized facade, he's got a secret. Wendi's mother also has a secret she's hiding.
Basically, there isn't a single perfect character in this book. Their choices are far from perfect, thus making the plot imperfect. All the characters are good because of this.
This is the type of plot that needs to be written, one based one the choices of the leads. In the end, I'm not really sure if justice was truly done of not. But that adds to the originality of it.
Basically, the only thing perfect about this book is the rating.
5 stars