Archive for the ‘Suspense’ Category

THE AMBITION: A NOVEL
Lee Strobel
ISBN: 978-0310292678 (Hardcover)
ASIN: B004DCAUYC (Kindle)
May 2011 (Hardcover)
May 2011 (Kindle)
Zondervan Publishing
Inspirational Fiction/Suspense
Inspirational Fiction/Thriller

Start with a murder case being brought to trial along with a corrupt judge. Then toss in a cynical reporter looking for a big story that might put him back in contention for a Pulitzer; and just to give the story an added twist fold in a disillusioned Evangelical pastor who is now hungry for more power and you will have most all of the ingredients for the intricate suspense thriller THE AMBITION penned by the New York Times best selling author Lee Strobel.

***   THE AMBITION started off with a bang. With a small time bookie trying to make a little extra on the side by skimming of of his street tax. Only the bookie got caught and was murdered by a relative of the reigning mob boss.   Now the hit man was a relative of the ‘boss’ so he contacted a lawyer who owed the ‘boss’ a great deal of money, because of a gambling addiction, to bring a monetary bribe  to a corrupt judge.  Said lawyer taped his conversation with the judge and soon after most all the lives he touched were in danger.  This whole scenario set up THE AMBITION for the events that followed.

What author Strobel did was to throw in the frustration of a cynical, once top news journalist who was looking for that one story that would help him regain his once notable status in the shark tank of his journalistic society.  Using his own notable journalistic background Strobel was able to make Gary Strider come to vivid life, with the endless leads, follow-up background checks, and simply an instinct for finding that one bit of information that opens the whole “can of worms” which would put his name back on the top of the heap.

The bigger story is an insiders view of what goes on behind the closed doors of the political big-whigs.  Mainly the grooming and molding of a candidate for a senatorial seat. Namely the attractive and dynamic Pastor Eric Snow, a man who had built a back room congregation into a colossal mega church.  Strobel showed Eric as a good man, but sometimes good men can be manipulated and Strobel exhibited this with a deft hand and keen understanding.

Bottom Line:  THE AMBITION  is a fast paced thriller that covers a lot of ground from the back rooms of the mob to the fast deals, manipulations and payoffs going on in the highest political offices of this country.  The scenario’s may be fiction, but the question remains, “what if.”  Very interesting reading!

Marilyn Rondeau for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com