Thursday, October 06, 2011

Book review: The Watcher by Sara Davison - Nesdoly

The Watcher, Ontario native Sara Davison’s debut novel, is not for the faint of heart. Set in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, this offering of contemporary romantic suspense is riveting in more ways than one.

The story is rife with foreboding and danger. Twenty years after the crime which wrecks all of Kathryn Ellison’s youthful plans, she is almost ready to let a new man into her life. But first she must cut ties to the past and deal with her 19-year-old daughter’s quest to find her father.

As Kathryn sorts through an old shoebox of memorabilia she remembers, and we are dropped into a soup of issues. We see that God doesn’t stop bad things from happening to His children. Truth will always come out. Consequences are inevitable. Forgiveness is key. Good things can come from evil situations. Above all, grace is tenacious.

Davison’s action scenes are dynamite. She knows how to ratchet up the tension (of which there is plenty) and how to relax us and put us off our guard. The story comes out in a puzzle-piece manner, giving the reader lots of opportunity for discovery and participation.

Davison tells the story through a celestial being (the watcher). What a great perspective this quirky narrator provides with the ability to sense human thoughts, feel emotions, move effortlessly from one location to another, recognize cohorts (like Faith, Grace, Courage, Fear etc. and in this way explore another spiritual layer), and provide welcome comic relief: “Of all things human, coffee is the thing I crave the most. I’ve never tasted it, of course, but the smell alone is enough to curl my toes in equal parts delight and envy” (Kindle Location 1212).

Canadian fiction has a fresh new voice in Sara Davison. (The Watcher won the 2010 Word Alive Publishing Contest – fiction category.)

Title: THE WATCHER
Author: Sara Davison
Paperback: 352 pages 
Publisher: Word Alive Press (February 22, 2011), Paperback, 352 pages (Kindle version also available)
  • ISBN-10: 1770691456
  • ISBN-13: 978-1770691452
(Review first published in the September/October issue of Faith Today.)


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Website: www.violetnesdoly.com

2 comments:

Peter Black said...

Violet, thank you for sharing this enjoyable and engaging review. It seems that Sara has adopted a novel concept in this work. It should do well, and develop a following for her next project.

Violet N. said...

Thanks, Peter. It's a serious story told from an interesting perspective and I hope it does well. I hear Sara has several more books sitting around in drawers and hard drives so we have more to look forward to!

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