Prolife fiction authors in the Christian market have long committed the sin of being overly didactic, rather than offering a well-crafted, balanced story. In their third novel, Cutrer and Glahn (Lethal Harvest; Deadly Cure) break this stereotype with a thoughtful, message-driven medical suspense novel that examines contemporary ethical dilemmas without resorting to proselytizing or oversimplification. "People change from the inside out. They change one heart at a time, so that's where we need to focus our energy," says Julien "Red" Richison to his girlfriend, Bethany Fabrizio, as she agonizes over the local abortion clinic. Their novel offers a diverse cross-section of medical-ethical crises, and characters are multifaceted, making decisions that may surprise some CBA readers. Teresa Murdock is militantly prolife, to the point of risking her own death to carry her pregnancy to term, even as another prolife mother facing cancer considers therapeutic abortion. The gentle, likable and agnostic Dr. Dalmuth Kedar finds a method to keep a 17-week-old preemie alive through technology, but uses aborted fetuses of the same age to develop his technique. Snappy dialogue, a comfortable rapport among the characters and several original plot twists keep the pages turning, while frequent moments of humor prevent things from getting too heavy-handed despite the serious nature of the issues. This is a mature, refreshing treatment of a difficult topic that should find wide readership in the CBA. (July)
