THEY SHALL SEE GOD

The Christian market sorely needs more quality suspense novels, and Dickson's excellent offering makes a solid contribution to the genre. Rabbi Ruth Gold and lapsed Protestant Kate Flint share a hideous legacy from their childhood: together they stumbled upon a murder scene, then helped incarcerate the man they saw holding a knife by the victim. Now he's been released after 25 years in prison, and a bizarre string of events mimicking stories from the biblical book of Genesis unfolds in present-day New Orleans. Gold's boyfriend is poisoned with cyanide after eating an apple in her living room, a brother is tricked into killing his brother and wild animals are released from the zoo to roam the city. Meanwhile, tension escalates between Gold's Jewish congregation and a group of Christian fanatics who picket the temple and badger the Jewish people to turn to Jesus. The multiple points of view give the novel a disjointed feel, and the book's intended CBA audience might have benefited from a glossary of the Jewish terms sprinkled showily throughout ("Instead of rounding up a minyan to say kaddish, I was wondering if you'd come to Mama's grave and light a yahrzeit candle with me and say shehecheyanu?"). However, the writing is original, with unexpected touches of humor, and contains enough plot twists to keep the reader guessing until the final pages. Although this is a highly entertaining nail-biter, one of the novel's significant accomplishments is its potential to promote greater understanding between people of both faiths. (June)