The Right Call by Kathy Herman

Ethan Langley has returned to the Tennessee town of Sophie Trace to enjoy his summer with the Jessups-namely their daughter Vanessa and her infant son Carter. He wants to know how deep their relationship can go during the summer and whether or not they are right for each other. He is also looking forward to seeing his cousin, Drew, who he grew up with. But Ethan's plans change when Drew's roommate is brutally murdered by a gunman who eventually shoots two more people dead. Brill Jessup is naturally on top of the case, but there are no concrete suspects since Drew never saw the killer. Ethan fears for the lives of Drew, Vanessa, and Carter and wonders if one of them will be next. But when the shooter finally does hit close to home for Ethan, he wonders what move he should make next. Can he make the right call and save the lives of more victims?

The illustrious conclusion to the Sophie Trace trilogy yields little to get excited about since Kathy Herman has still not completely returned to her originality of old. Through robotic characters, an average plot, and a cheesy end that leads to another series, the Sophie Trace Trilogy becomes an average and very forgettable series among Christian fiction.

Robotic and uncreative dialogue creates many robotic characters without personalities. Ethan, Vanessa, Brill, Kurt, Emily, Drew, and others lost whatever personality or imperfection they had in the first two books of the series. Tessa, the famous nosy neighbor, and one of Ethan's coworkers are the only believable and interesting characters in the entire book. The villain is better than not because he is not a mindless shooting machine. Kathy's bit of dialogue "Look for a fox instead of a lion" is an adage all suspense authors need to live by when creating their villains.

The romantic subplot between Ethan and Vanessa is the heighth of cheesiness, but at least Vanessa didn't play the 'I-hate-you-then-I-love-you' bit. Brill's inevitable police case is better than the other cases of this series, mostly because it is based on gambling addictions. An added plus to this is the fact that Kathy completely avoided a showdown between the villain and any of the key characters. Also, a key character dies in the middle of the book. However, the end of the book is still cheesy because a key character suspect was proven innocent in the end, not to mention what transpired between Ethan and Vanessa in order to set up another series.

Kathy Herman may be making a turn back to her past, but she definitely needs to get some help with character development if she expects to take the next step. She has proven before that she knows how to write a good mystery, but she has never mastered character development. Perhaps she will surprise us all in the Langley Manor trilogy.

2.5 stars

Day of Reckoning by Kathy Herman

Two local girls from the simple town of Baxter are missing. Kidnapping is highly suspected, especially since one of the girls is the daughter of a well-to-do businessman in town whose outsourcing of his company to Costa Rica five years before cost many townspeople their jobs. The authorities suspect that someone laid off in the outsourcing is responsible for the crime at large, someone among their very lives. This causes the girls' families to pray like they never had before that they are alive. It also raises a question for newspaper reporter Ellen Jones-can bitterness drive someone to do something so desperate? But this question must be put on hold, for the killer has made it known that time is running out for the girls' very lives.

Once again, Kathy Herman has written a plot that stinks in the first half and shines in the second half. She has many original ideas, but she muddles them up with bad characters and cheesy dialogue. But still, she puts another one on the Elite List.

At first, the characters suffer from lack of personality or imperfection. The parents of the girls are highly typical and benevolent characters, and the villain is typical and cheesy. The biggest problem is Kathy Herman's definition of a "Christian" character. It dates back to the 90s idea of Christian fiction characters-benevolent people who do nothing but pray and care for others, never making a mistake or having a thought that isn't religious. I thought this notion was dropped at the turn of the century, but apparently Kathy hasn't been keeping her writing self-help books in date. This notion also applies to the villain-a cheesy mongrel who spouts typical lines about meddling. Yet in this instance, Kathy's inconsistency helps her in that the characters do not remain this way during the entire book. In the second half of the book, the characters actually become believable. This is where the book begins its redemption.

At first, the plot is sketchy, undetailed, and too fast-paced. Time goes by too fast and events occur rapidly. Yet again, in the second half of the book, the plot slows down and gains enough substance to be five stars, yet at this point it didn't matter. Kathy becomes more descriptive and starts doing odd things. Two key character deaths in quick succession turn the tide and put this book on the Elite List. The plot needed these deaths in order to make it realistic and believable. Besides this the villian becomes more believeable and nothing about the conclusion is perfect.

I continue to fail to understand Kathy Herman's haphazard writing style, yet as long as it keeps putting books on the Elite List, I really have nothing to complain about.

4 stars

Tested By Fire by Kathy Herman

Jed Wilson's world has been devastated. The house boat of his best friend, Mike McCalley, has been blown to bits during the night. All family members are presumably dead. Arson is suspected, but there were no witnesses and the evidence is slim. But when the FBI hears word that Mike may still be alive and on the run, they begin a manhunt, suspecting that he was the one who started the fire. Jed leaves his failing marriage behind and decides to race the FBI to get to Mike first and discover the true story, because he does not believe that Mike murdered his own family. He embarks on a trip across the country and soon finds that God has been working on his heart, trying to draw him closer to Him. Not only is he on a race against time-he's on a journey for his soul.

Kathy Herman has spun quite a mystery in Tested By Fire, one of the best mysteries I have ever read. I liked everything about the explosion case, but there were surrounding plot elements that took this book's rating down from five stars.

The characters do not have personalities per se, but they are all imperfect. The entire book is based on their wrong choices; no one is innocent. Surprisingly, Kathy Herman completed avoided creating a villain. This is a very interesting touch because it is more realistic without a villain. Kathy definitely could have developed her characters better, but imperfection is a step in the right direction.

One would assume that Kathy would give poor Mike an out by the discovery of a serial arsonist on something of the like, but she does not, to my surprise. The rating of this book truly hinged on this factor, and she delivered. Kathy even added two key character deaths at the end to spice things up. However, she needed things like this to counter the typical plot elements she wrote in. There are a series of key character conversions, which occur in an unrealistic, simultaneous fashion. The best way to avoid conversions is to eliminate the need for them, for we should not be against people accepting Jesus into their life. However, we must write about it in a realistic way. Another major problem is a wasted series of chapters depicting Jed driving from city to city with a random child along for the ride. I assume that Kathy wrote this in merely to fill time, but the void could have been filled with something more worthwhile.

Generally, Kathy Herman is a good author, even though this is her first Elite book. She has original ideas in her books, but she muddles them with typical plot elements. With the elimination of such things, she can be a superb author indeed.

4 stars

The Last Word by Kathy Herman

Vanessa Jessup returns home from her sophomore year of college with a dreadful secret that she must disclose to her parents. She is pregnant by her psychology professor, who disappeared off the face of the earth after she told him she was pregnant. Now Vanessa is forced to put college on hold and think about what she's going to do with the life growing inside of her.

Brill Jessup, on top of learning of her daughter's untimely pregnancy, is investigating a difficult case that could threaten her career as the Sophie Trace sheriff. A maniac killer has been stabbing police officers, putting them in the hospital, and killing most of them. Brill suspects he is targeting her, so she puts her entire family on lock down in their own home. She can only imagine who will be stabbed next...

At first I didn't think The Real Enemy needed a sequel, but I thoroughly enjoyed Vanessa's subplot. However, her subplot was the only good part of the entire book. Brill's case was only slightly better than the case in The Real Enemy.

The cast of characters is virtually the same as that in The Real Enemy, only they have improved. Most of them have actually developed personalities and are imperfect. This gives me hope for Kathy Herman in the future because good characters can overshadow a mediocre plot.

Brill's subplot, another "big case" is the only thing keeping the book off of the Elite List. Though the showdown was better than the showdown in The Real Enemy, it was still rather predictable. I think this series would have done better with a normal, character-based book, and not another "suspense" plot.

I loved Vanessa's subplot because it has a very original end, one that I did not expect. I've never even seen an author end a pregnant college student plot like Kathy ended Vanessa's. I can now happily expect more original things like this from her in the future.

Even if Kathy had eliminated Brill's unnecessary case, it still would not have been five stars because the Jessups have gone from being the broken family in The Real Enemy to being the nearly perfect family. Kurt and Emily are downright annoying characters, even though they are the only bad ones.

All in all, if Kathy keeps this up, she'll have an Elite book in no time.

3 stars

The Real Enemy by Kathy Herman

The Real Enemy had received a lot of acclaim from respected authors who say it's very suspenseful and holds one's attention until the end. But in a world of mediocre fiction, The Real Enemy blends in with the rest.
It's about the first female sheriff of a certain small town in Tennessee. Her first big case is seven disappearances of people in seven days. There seems to be no connection to their disappearances except that they all disappeared on consecutive days. On top of that, she's having marriage and family troubles.
I don't really see any difference in this plot and with many other mysteries like it. The characters are just average and the end easy to figure out.
Having a "suspenseful" hostage scene at the end is never something you should do unless you aren't going to have the hostages escape.
Some people will like this book, but I didn't really find any enjoyment or original about it. The best thing about it is that it's well written. She wrote it as good as she could have except for the hostage scene at the end.
But basically, this story has been done before by many, many female authors. And the fact that the book has a sequel doesn't ease my dislike.
My hope is that a female author besides Angela Hunt will find some originality in her writing.
2.5 stars