PUBLICATION DATE: MAY 3, 2011

am Travis had spent the last six months recovering for a terrible work accident.  Though he had eventually emerged from a coma, the side effects of his severe head trauma were still evident.  Until the night he heard Tommy’s voice, they had been troubling, but not disturbing.  However, once Tommy called his name the darkness soon closed in on him clouding his judgment haunting his days and night.  He found journal entries by a Samuel Whiting written by his own hand, but Sam never recalled writing them nor did he know who Samuel Whiting was.  The memories of his brother began surfacing and slowly but surely the love of his wife and daughter began to be crowded out by the evil consuming his life and a single message—kill Lincoln.  Can his daughter’s love penetrate the darkness and prevent Sam from assassinating senator and presidential hopeful, Stephen Lincoln?  In Mike Dellosso’s best book to date, Darkness Follows, is both ugly in its despair and beautiful in its hope, with epic struggles between good and evil, past and present, dark and light.

Talk about not being able to sum up a book well.  That summary barely touched on the depth of plot in this story.  Darkness Follows is truly a fantastic story with a gripping plot and haunting undertones.  The different character lines are numerous and amply supply the reader with strong suspense, but the book is way too short.  There are so many juicy little story lines that I wanted to dig into deeper.  I wanted to know more history about Samuel Whiting and his time in the Civil War as well as his life prior to the war.  I wanted more journal entries.  I wanted to know more about Molly’s family and her background not to mention the mystery man’s history.  Oh, there were so many good parts of this book that I would have loved to explore more thoroughly.  Of course, it’s always good when the reader is wanting more rather than waiting for it to be over, but how I wish this book would have been another 100 pages.

Dellosso does an incredible job of executing this story.  With most chapters switching between characters, the suspense is well sustained and nagging questions are lodged in the reader’s mind.  Looking into the psyche of each broken character maintained a good balance between empathy and fear for what these guys were going through.  Combined with flashbacks to their past, Darkness Follows superbly provided a steady supply of suspense for those that simply can’t get enough.

I have come to admire Dellosso’s approach to adding the spiritual elements to his books.  While they tend to include a bit more than I usually prefer, he incorporates them in a way that makes them integral to the story rather than feeling like an afterthought.  At the heart of this book is the love shared between father and daughter.  As someone who adores my daddy, I love reading books that bring out this special relationship.  I’ve read books that portray a strong love of a father for their daughter, but I can’t recall one that so elegantly shows the love of a daughter for her father.  Though Eva is only seven, the simplicity and purity of her love for Sam makes this book work.  Without her innocent beliefs and her unconditional love for her dad, the ending would fall into the category of melodramatic and, well, lame.  As it stands, the reciprocating love between these two characters paints a beautiful image of God’s love for us.

Mike Dellosso is steadily climbing up my list of favorite authors.  He’s definitely moved from the category of author to watch to one of the top authors in the edgy Christian fiction market.  With each book he presents a consistent dedication to books that glorify God while continuing to perfect his craft of writing strong, suspense-laden, entertaining stories.  Without a doubt, Darkness Follows is a fantastic book and an excellent choice for those looking for a dark novel with good spiritual themes.