Recently,
reviewers, who also happen to be pastors and authors, gave 5-star thumbs-up
reviews for WARRIOR MONK…
1) Book
Review: Pistol-packin’ Pastor
by Rev.
Frederic W. Baue, Ph.D.
I
am writing this review with a Bic 4-color ball point pen, the kind I’ve been
using for over 40 years. Its retractable red, green, blue, and black cylinders
are ideal for marking my Bible. That, however, is not the way this humble
little item is used in this excellent debut novel from economics columnist Ray
Keating. In fact, let’s use those four colors to structure this review.
RED
is for blood. Warrior Monk is the story of Stephen Grant, 40, a Lutheran pastor
in Long Island, New York. He loves his ministerial work. But he is a
“second-career” guy, having previously served his country as a Navy SEAL, then
as a special-ops CIA secret agent. He has several notches on his 10 mm Glock
20. That weapon serves him well when a crazy woman goes on a shooting rampage
in his church. He takes her out. Next thing you know, this “pistol-packing
pastor” is on the security detail for Pope Augustine I, who is soon to visit
Long Island. As the story develops, there is blood, bullets, and action
a-plenty in this well-wrought thriller.
[Spoiler
alert: red also stands for the Cincinnati Reds, Grant’s favorite team.]
BLUE,
ahem, is for the language employed by the true-to-life characters in Warrior
Monk, especially when engaged in action scenes or plotting assassinations. Here
we may include scenes of sexual tension between Pastor Grant and a seductive
former CIA partner. Let the pious reader be forewarned.
BLACK
of course stands for evil. There is plenty of it for Grant to handle. The visit
of the pope inspires a host of groups that want to kill him. In addition, there
is the quieter but deadlier evil of false doctrine which can kill the soul. Let
me here commend Ray Keating for his accuracy in the details of church stuff. He
knows his subject, and excels in depicting the nuances of the various Lutheran
church bodies.
GREEN
means life, and all attendant virtues such as love, truth, order, and so forth.
All of these come from God. They are opposed by Satan, working through his
villains, femmes fatale, corrupt politicians, heretics, and such. Pastor
Stephen Grant is thrown into the conflict, and becomes a
Christian-against-crime in the tradition of Chesterton’s Father Brown and
Sayers’s Peter Wimsey.
In
fact, this is precisely the attraction of detective fiction (and here we may
include action-adventure tales) for the Christian writer: the literary conceits
of the genre demand that in the end, the crook will be nabbed, the wrong
avenged, and order restored. Thus we have an artistic depiction of biblical
reality in which no matter how terrible things are, Christ is victor on the
Last Day. In the meantime pastors like Stephen Grant must work for biblical
truth, and secret agents like Stephen Grant must work for civil order.
Warrior
Monk is a page-turner with intellectual depth. Get this book now.
2) Review of
Warrior Monk
by Tyrel
Bramwell
With
powerful endorsements by both a congressman (Pete King) and a well known
reporter (Larry Kudow) on the cover, I was aching to get into this book. The
first of Ray Keating’s Pastor Stephen Grant novels, Warrior Monk,
catches your attention from page one. It reads like one of Vince
Flynn’s Mitch Rapp adventures, dishing out details and action at a fast
pace. And in the midst of that action Keating manages to brilliantly
present the reader with thought provoking truths, seemingly little things that
aren’t pondered nearly enough, such as a note about church
architecture or a relational reality particular to men who hold
the pastoral office. At other times he deals with larger topics such as
church doctrine and practice. As the story unfolds Keating presents the
Christian faith in a real way that any reader will appreciate, exposing
differences and difficulties between varying denominations and between the
Church and the world without distraction. This perfect backdrop propels
the protagonist, and the reader, into the challenges of the book.
It’s
a spectacular ride steeped in theological intrigue! As a fan of G.K.
Chesterton I delighted in the similarities between Keating’s Pastor
Stephen Grant and Chesterton’s Father Brown. In the 20th century, Chesterton, a
journalist (among other things), gave the world a detective priest. In the
21st, another journalist (among other things), Keating, gave the world a
spy-turned-pastor. Grant is not without his Flambeau either. Both characters
are the perfect mouthpiece for the authors to speak to the ills of
the world in their day and age.
The
chapters are brief, which makes ingesting the story between the interruptions
that are always working to pull this reader out of the adventure a breeze.
Chapters four and five deliver the goods. I’ll never sing A Mighty Fortress
Is Our God the same way. What a mental picture! The fun never stops. Truly
from cover to cover you’re in for a treat. I can’t wait to dive into the next Pastor
Stephen Grant novel.
WARRIOR MONK:
A PASTOR STEPHEN GRANT NOVEL has earned an average Amazon.com reviewer rating
of 4.3 stars out of 5, and was ranked as a Top 10 book on a WORLD magazine June
2013 list.
