Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Darkness Follows by Mike Dellosso (Book Review)

Title: Darkness Follows
Author: Mike Dellosso
Publisher: Realms

Sam Travis is a man on the brink of despair. . .

Out of a job and feeling worthless, Sam Travis is awakened one night to the sounds of a Civil War battle raging outside his Gettysburg home.  But it's the middle of the night and the summer's reenactments are long over.  A search for the source brings him to an old journal by a Union soldier. . . written in his own handwriting.

When more of the mysterious writings appear and begin to mimic Sam's own life, his search for the truth puts him on a downward spiral that eventually drives him from his wife, his daughter, and his home -- and into an evil plot that could cost many lives, including his own.

My thoughts:  Sam lives in Gettysburg, PA with his wife, Molly and daughter, Eva. He hasn't worked in a while as he is recuperating from a head injury that he sustained from falling off a roof at his job.  His wife has had to take over the running of basically everything, and it has left their relationship strained.    When Sam begins seeing and hearing his dead brother, and discovers writings about history (of which he has no knowledge) in his own hand, the tension between them increases.

He doesn't feel that he can share these things with her as he thinks he is slowly going crazy and doesn't want her to confirm it.  He has also not shared what happened between him and his brother growing up, and is trying desperately to keep it closed off in his mind.

I loved the way that the author flipped back and forth from the past to the present and showed many similarities in people despite the era they were in.  Eva, Sam's daughter, continues to tell her parents about a glittery friend, Jacob, who tells her to keep telling her daddy that she loves him.  Her faith and love are tremendous and this is very apparent in the story.  Even after she is kidnapped and thinks she has lost her daddy as he has gone off to do a "bad thing", she continues to have hope.

The book rushes along and I found myself not wanting to put it down as there were so many things that could happen, both good and bad, and I had no idea which way the author was going to go.  As it is Christian fiction, I assumed there would be a good outcome, but had no idea how Mr. Dellosso was going to get there and how he was going to tie everything together.  I was not disappointed.  Love plays a big part in the story as does faith (especially the faith of a child).

I have had the opportunity to read Scream and enjoyed it as well.  The author has a new book, Frantic, coming out in 2012 and it is already on my reading list!


~I received a complimentary copy of this book from Anna Coelho Silva, Publicity Coordinator, Charisma House, Charisma Media in exchange for my review. ~

About the author: Mike Dellosso is the author of The Hunted, Darlington Woods, and Scream and an adjunct professor of writing at Lancaster Bible College.  Mike earned his BA degree from Messiah College and his MBS from Master's International School of Divinity.  He lives in Hanover, PA, with his wife and daughters.

You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, and his web page.


Darkness Follows
Publisher/Publication Date: Realms, May 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61638-274-2
281 pages


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