Name: The Guardian
ISBN: 9781414310572

Dee Henderson

U.S. Marshall Marcus O'Malley must deal with a variety of problems, including his sister's diagnosis of cancer and protecting a woman who witnessed a murder.

The Guardian

Jeni Enjaian

*Update* The flaws stood out with distinction on this read-through. The tipping point came with the rapid romance between Marcus and Shari as well as the indistinct passage of time. The narrative made clear the passage of time only at certain times. Without this distinction, a reader would easily assume that the events of the narrative composed a week or two at most. This book did not survive round two of the purge from my personal collection.

While I enjoyed this book, I did not enjoy it as much as the first book in the series, The Negotiator. In comparison, the characters seemed just a bit flatter and some of the plot felt just a little more unbelievable than The Negotiator.

That being said, Henderson continued the O'Malley family story brilliantly. Jennifer's continued struggle with cancer (something I can relate to, having watched my aunt battle cancer for 13 years) and the really hard questions it raises, Henderson does not shy away from. That's one thing I really appreciate about Henderson's writing. Her "conversion" scenes (for lack of a better description) are real and believable. Unlike many other Christian authors, Henderson does not make the character's situation perfect once he believes. (That unfortunate tendency is why I don't read a lot of Christian fiction. It simply isn't true.)

This wasn't Henderson's strongest outing but it was still pretty good. I continue to recommend this book and this series as a whole.