AVENGING SWORD

by Joyce Handzo

Dancing Word Reviewer

http://www.dancingword.net/avengingswordreview.htm

Reviewed by Beatrice Bruno, June 2004
Avenging Sword
by Melody Ravert
Publish America
ISBN: 1-4137-1144-8

Avenging Sword is a novel about the lives of people from several different cultures and the circumstances that lead them to find their way to a relationship with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Gang murders, gang rapes, gang beatings are all mixed together in a way to show the characters their need for something and Someone more than what they have. Characters were led to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and the reader is able to capture that feeling of burdens being lifted from the shoulders of the oppressed by the use of excellently placed descriptive language.

Mrs. Ravert was able to make adverse conditions appear as real-time situations without presenting the blood and gore that a secular novel of the same type would have portrayed. And she did it without profanity which seems to be a key element in most novels of the same type in our secular world.

Mrs. Ravert has deftly done what few authors, seasoned or otherwise, have been capable of doing. She has mixed at least three different cultures – African/American, Caucasian, and Hispanic – in a novel of unity which cohesively maintains the cultural diversity that gives the reader a better understanding of gangs and gang mentality.

Avenging Sword reads like an episode of Law and Order, Criminal Intent, with a Christian slant to it. With her style of going back and forth from one scene to the next, Mrs. Ravert brilliantly built the story line around her characters and craftily left the ending open so that another novel could easily be continued from this one.

Avenging Sword would be excellent for the Youth Ministry of any church group to use as a tool to give the youth a better understanding of gangs and gang mentality. It would be especially helpful in teaching them how to identify with people of other racial backgrounds while also teaching racial unity and tolerance.

The use of the stories of the Bible concerning the Good Samaritan and the woman at the well are effective witnessing tools that youth of any age would be able to identify with.

I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves romance, mystery, action and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Beatrice Stallworth-Bruno
Author of Everyone Going To Heaven Will Not Be Staying! Are You Really Saved? - Release date July 10, 2004

"Shadow of Death"

Rick Mohr, Dream Forge EZine Book Reviews
*Do not copy without permission*Mohr Reviews

‘Shadow of Death’
A Novel by Melody Ravert
ISBN # 1-59286-044-3
Published by Publish America
PO Box 151
Frederick MD 21705-0151

169 PP @ $19.95

Christian Books. I’m sure there are those of you that think for a book to have a Christian message, it must be either preachy, or so sappy that any glimpses of plot or characterization is thrown out the window. How could a book that talks about God as a main force in the lives of the characters possibly have anything mainstream about it, and especially when it is a murder mystery? Well, let me tell you that I thought the same thing until I read ‘Shadow of Death’ by author Melody Ravert, and boy did she open my eyes.

What a thrill it was to read this book! Paced like an action movie, it drags you through a plethora of emotions as Carla Summers, a defense attorney, prepares a case to defend her client in a murder case. Her client, Randal Turner, claims his innocence, and with the help of Homicide Detective Nick Brunetti, perhaps she will be able to see justice done and an innocent man go free. There is so much more under the surface than a homicide, and Ms. Ravert creates a complicated web of blackmail, drug rings and murder that will leave you guessing until the end. Even after the trial is over, Carla is still in great danger and Nick must race to not only solve the mystery, but also rescue the woman he loves. It is obvious that there is chemistry between the two, which forces her to face her lack of trust in men when it comes to intimate relationships due to her former husband and the abuse she suffered at his hand. The way Ms. Ravert crafts the interaction of the two characters, each with baggage, yet each wanting to give themselves to one another in the purest sense of the term is beautifully portrayed. My complements to you for not writing characters that just jump into the sack with each other, but instead creating characters that interact on the best kind of level-real.

She also manages to combine her obvious deep-rooted religious beliefs into a tightly woven tale of murder and intrigue that could and should take its place proudly beside any secular novel of the same type. Her love of God shows in her writing, in the way the characters talk and act, as well as react to their situations and each other. I think that this is the first book I have read in a long time where when the character says, “Please God, let her be all right”, I really felt as if it was a prayer and not a cliché.

Let me tell you one more thing she does, as minor as it may seem, that I really liked. She ends the book with the words, ‘The End’. You have no idea how much a simple thing like that struck me; I actually smiled. I mean, how long as it been since you saw those words on something? Anymore, books just stop, movies just go to credits, or even go so far as to mention the next part as the first finishes. Even though it is possible for there to be a sequel (and I hope there will be) it was refreshing to see those two little words at the bottom of the last page. Her story was told as she wanted it to be-THE END. I liked that.

That being said, let me take a page from the author so to speak, and end my review as she did her story. If you love a good murder mystery, put aside any preconceived notion you might have and try this book. You will be in for a great read by an author that I am sure we will be hearing more from. I’m glad I read it, I enjoyed it thoroughly, and you will too. THE END



Jeffrey A. Davis, Inspired By Faith Book Reviews
*Do not copy without permission* Inspired By Faith Reviews

http://www.inspiredbyfaith.tk/

Shadow of Death
Melody Ravert
Publish America, LLC.

Carla Summers is a defense attorney with a sordid past. Nick Brunetti is the police detective who wants her to love him. What starts as a "simple" homicide case becomes a race to find the real killer before Carla becomes the next victim.

-RELIGIOUS CONTENT: Carla treats her legal practice as a ministry to help those who lack the funds to help themselves. She is mindful of God's will and His protection. In fact, there is an impressive web of Christian characters in this book. A former "escort" girl is led to Christ. A man who lost his faith when his devout mother died finds it again. A group of men and women pray around a man's hospital bed.

-ADULT LANGUAGE/CONTENT: The villain uses two crude, though not "swear," words to describe Carla. There are no other language problems. There isn't any sexual content in the book. In fact, the story goes so far as to say that one lonely bachelor wants a wife to come home to. Let me say that again. He wants a WIFE to whom he can come home. Not a girlfriend or "sexual partner." In this day and age, this is a novel . . . and WONDERFUL . . . idea!

-VIOLENT CONTENT: Though people die and a couple of people survive gunshot wounds, Ravert doesn't detail the gore.

-CONCLUSION: Shadow of Death is a refreshing change from formulaic courtroom suspense dramas. Highly recommended.