Review: gets 2 because it was well edited or would rate 1 star
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 6, 2012
The writer scrubbed (or had someone do so) this novel well.  There are some minor grammar, punctuation errors.  Nothing like I commonly see in "indie" works here on amazon.  He rates a star for that alone.  I often see reviewers getting bashed for complaints regarding such.  But, the reality is:  pacing and story is thrown off by error riddled text.  This was gone over well. In only one instance did I see an error related to a character name (Mrs.Roberts was referred to as Mrs. Brown - by Brown himself).  Not bad at all.  Kudos to Mr. Woodfin for editing.Issues with this novel:There should be some disclosure in the description about how much religion is in this book. More on that further down.Some of the sentences have 45, 59, 73 or more for word length.  This does toss off pacing quite a bit.  One may frequently have to go and reread such to get the gist. Which is never great.  I challenge Mr.  Woodfin to read his 75 word sentence aloud with one breath and not gasp.  Attention span is only about as long as one can do such (read a sentence aloud comfortably) for pacing to be good.Only 7 percent of the population is going to understand several of the words the author uses.  I am unsure if the goal was to "show off" intellect,  to be condescending, to write only for that small population, or just because he has a word of the day calendar and can only use the words in a book (for they do not fit -most of them - in daily conversation).  Stentorian, mellifluous, ubiquitous, castigation (used incorrectly anyway), vacuous, antebellum, peripatetic, etc.  True, some can be gleaned by use. Others not so much.  It really hampers pacing and the tale to stop and ponder what the heck is being said/meant, to grab a dictionary, or to use the kindle dictionary.  I only had to consider one - but,  I fall into the top 7 percent of the knowledge base.  People may read to challenge their minds, but typically NOT with a novel picked up for enjoyment purposes.  We have our own word of the day calendars for that ;).This book would fall under Deus ex machina moreso than it does if the story premise was not all about religion under the guise of a story about terrorism.  A good, selfless, humble, selfsacrificing, man who only wants to spread good and love and light.  He wants to help the downtrodden, saves lives tossed away by all others, teaches them, heals their hearts and minds and they become (in the word of one of the characters - Maggie) his disciple.  All the characters in this story have a revelation to become better in his presence - even those trying to kill him.  All are ready to die "for the good." The main character Joshua Issacharoff (don't worry,  you won't ever forget his name as the author irritatingly uses the full name in 90 percent of the book as if the readers are not going to know who just plain"Josh" or "Joshua" are when Ert or someone is talking about him) appears to be a Christ-like figure.  He cites Gethsemane and Golgotha as if he is the second coming and his fate is that of Jesus.  I won't spoil the book by letting out an easily predictable scene based on this.  The foe is Cain, references are made to the Holy Grail, "the real gospel," thirty pieces of silver, crossing over from the darkside to the light, Mary Magdalene, purifying the soul with confession, shackling with faith, prayer, disciples, he will die only because he lets them kill him "for the good of all people," someone looked like Moses, etc.  While there is not a pushy religious agenda, there are prophecies and people all around re-evaluating how they lived their lives and need to change them for the better.  Lots of religious "go with God" type things too.  It really should have been noted in the book description as the religious angle is as much of a plot device as the terrorism bit.  Moreso, actually.  The terrorism bit actually becomes secondary to the religious in this novel.There are suspension of belief issues with most novels.  Not an issue really - usually.  However, "good ole country boy" or not, one would THINK a lawyer (even in bottom 50 percent of the graduating class) would realize (long before being escorted to a cell in a prison jumpsuit) that something was amiss.  It is too far beyond suspension to ask a reader to believe Ert BEGAN to realize he was in trouble as he strode into a cell and realized it was for him, rather than asking questions when they had him strip...or jumpsuit up himself.I cannot suspend belief enough to go to the place where the INS are used as murder scene "sweepers" for Homeland Security.  I could believe the FBI or CIA might.  But INS? Not so much.I also cannot wrap my head around Billions going missing from the govt for 10 years and the govt not know about it.  A whole project:  BILLIONS of dollars over a 10 year project with staff and buildings; working on a space weapon that NO ONE knows about,  except the hundreds of employees (that never tell a soul)?  Say, I have some property, ocean-front, in Wisconsin to show ya.  Sell it to ya on the cheap...Moving on:The writer, in an effort to build suspense, left many scenes abruptly. He wrote too little when more was needed (like in scene above, he had a lot of action potential left unused).  Conversely, he put in loads of detail of a repetivie nature that was unnecessary.  For instance, Brother Billy tosses his cell phone in a trash can at a McDonalds, knocking out some styrofoam containers.  Later in the book he has a new cell.  But, the author tells us again (like we are idiots) that the new cell is to replace the old one that got tossed earlier at a McDonalds  (in full repetitive of scene detail).  This type overwriting (coupled with the first/last name usage throughout) is a bit of a paradox in light of the ginormous words riddling the text.  Either the reader is smart or totally clueless.  We cannot be both...The writer editorilizes throughout.  For instance, Brother Billy and DeShaun go into a convenience store in some town during their travels.  The clerk is a stranger to them.  Yet the clerk gives them a strange look because one is a defrocked minister, the other is a gay black minister on his way to defrocking.  I took the liberty of paraphrasing as I cannot recall the exact scene quote.  However, there is NO way the strange look was for the reasons stated in the paragraph.  The clerk could not know such personal history of these two. Such editorilizing is throughout the text.Dialogue is formal and stiff/flat in many cases.  It is abrupt and missing where needed in many others.  It seems as if the writer had this great story idea to tell, but did not know how to get his characters to work for him.  So, he just told a story and dropped in some characters because people needed to be in the story.  Once there,  he did not know what to do WITH them. - so he just did stuff TO them.There is no seeming character development.  There are smattering but there is not one fully developed character.  One knows what side to root for, but cannot develop an attachment to any one particular person.  It is always nice to be pulled into a story and really feel it.  It does not happen in this story.I don't recommend this book for the underdeveloped characters and the rushed and abrupt story arc told in a pedantic, stilted manner.  Your mileage may vary.