T.L. Hines makes a grand entrance onto the novelist stage with his first book, Waking Lazarus, debuting in my favorite genre - supernatural suspense fiction. Not many books have hooked me with the first sentence, but this one did. Jude Allman is immune to the power of death. He has died three times and each time comes back to life. Not just a four-minute, brain-dead coma death, but a full-fledged, covered-with-a-sheet, placed-in-the-morgue, past rigor mortis kind of death. Intrigued? Read on!
Pros
- Supernatural suspense, psychological thriller combination - "it doesn't get much better than this!"
- As I prefer, not as dark, grisly or graphic as some psychological thrillers, yet still a page-turner.
- Sprinkled with various applicable references to Scripture.
- While delving into the paranormal, Hines manages to maintain a strong sense of credibility.
- Spiritually challenging, complex, creative, intelligent.
Cons
- I would have liked to see more character development and more pages - it was too short!
- Just one loose end in my mind - what happened to Jude's father in the end? Did he recover?
Description
- Genre: Supernatural Suspense
- Release Date: July 6, 2006
- Author: T.L. Hines
- Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
- ISBN: 0764202049
- Format: Hardcover; 352 Pages.
Guide Review - Waking Lazarus by T.L. Hines
At age eight Jude Allman drowns, at sixteen he is struck by lightening, and at twenty-four he is trapped in a snow storm and freezes to death. What Jude can't figure out, and what he dreads knowing most, is why? After being hounded by the media and labeled a modern-day Lazarus, Jude decides to disappear into paranoid anonymity, apparently possible in a small Montana town. There he tries to forget what has haunted him for years. But God won't let Jude keep the past buried, not when there's so much at stake. Could his life, and his deaths, all be part of a plan? A purpose designed by God?
Jude shares the common struggles of Moses, Elijah and other prophets and messengers of God -- self-doubt, fear of the supernatural forces operating in his life, and an irresistible impulse to run from the call of God. He's a likable, honest and unprocessed character that real people (like you and I) can relate to.
In Waking Lazarus, T.L. Hines makes us believe the unbelievable. If Jesus could raise his friend Lazarus from the dead (John 11), is it not possible today that God could resurrect one of his chosen servants? The Bible says in Romans 8:11, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you." (NLT)
My Favorite Quote from the Book:
- Jude stood and caught Linda staring at him, her mouth agape. The look in her eyes was one he knew well from his previous life as everybody's favorite life-after-death boy: part wonder, part fear. "I don't know who you are," she whispered after a few seconds. "But thank you."
He nodded ... Jude turned to head for the door again, then stopped and looked back to Linda. "I don't know who I am either."
About the Author
Hines is no stranger to professional writing. In the past fifteen years he's written articles for several publications including the Conservative Theological Journal, Travel & Leisure and Log Homes. He is also the Creative Director for a large Montana advertising agency. I have no doubt the release of Waking Lazarus will launch a long and successful novel writing career for T.L. Hines. If you're reading, Mr. Hines, let me be one of the first to welcome you to my bookshelf!
