Ten Plagues by Mary Nealy

Synopsis :

A detective with a gift for discerning spirits.
A pastor whose sinful past is awakened by a murderer.
A killer possessed by demon with a sadistic taste for destruction.

And the plague of murders that has them on a collision course. When a serial killer wreaks havoc on the city of Chicago with the fury of an Old Testament plague, detective Keren Collins is assigned to the case. Armed with her God-given gift of discerning spirits, she sets out in a race against time to stop a madman before he strikes again.

Pastor Paul Morris, a retired cop who once tried to ruin Keren’s career, is the focus of the murderer’s obsession. . .but unaware of the link between himself and the killer that marks him as the ultimate victim. As the two race to end the killing spree, Paul struggles to not let his old self rule him. And Keren can’t decide whether she is glad to see Paul suffer or if she is falling in love with him. Will they win in this battle of good over evil?

The ten plagues here refers to the plagues of Egypt and the killer releases them one by one as he kills one women after another. The suspense builds up as readers will try to guess who the killer is but that’s not the critical aspect in the novel.

While the focus is on racing around the clock to catch the killer, I felt that the essence of the book is on struggles we have within ourselves. As the taunting by the killer increases, Pastor Paul felt struggle to be either cop or pastor. He has problem controlling his anger and felt that his anger is a sin which is being awaken through this horrible event and he doesn’t like what he is becoming which is less of a pastor and more of his old self. Is the author trying to bring to light the struggles of believers in the marketplace? It is sometimes very difficult to act in a Christian manner while in the face of trials and tribulations and we struggle against ourselves in this worldly world.

Sometimes believers hide from the rest of the world in order not to feel worldly. They kept themselves busy with church and ministries and within their circle of safety zone that they lost sight of the great commission which is to ‘go into the world...’

I don’t know why some reviewed Ten Plagues negatively. I think it has a brilliant plot. While it does started off a bit bearishly (borrowing a term from the stock market), it gets more exciting as it moves along and does end rather bullishly!

I am also in awe of Keren's gift of descerning spirits and especially when she prayed and the demon left that man and because that man refused to accept Jesus into his life, another more powerful demon take over the 'vacated' man before you can even count 'one'.  This was mentioned in the bible but the speed of it really shocked me.

I certainly recommend this book for those interested in suspense with a touch of romance and more than hint of the Christian faith.

Mary Nealy is the suspense genre pen name for bestselling and award-winning author Mary Connealy, who is best known for her humorous Old West romances. She makes her home with her husband on a farm in Nebraska near her four grown daughters.

Ten Plagues will be released by Barbour Publishing on 1st October 2011. I review this for NetGalley.com.