The Edge of Grace

Allan cooks up another wise-cracking, flawed central character reminiscent of Leah Thornton, the alcoholic protagonist of Walking on Broken Glass. Caryn Becker is a widowed single mom who learns in the phone call that opens the narrative that her brother David is gay. Readers who don't think this is a dramatic problem will have no reason to read the rest of the novel. But those in the Christian audience who are captured by this premise can learn something from this story with a message. Allan writes well, though the wit of Caryn's narrative voice could use occasional changeup to avoid sounding brittle. It also takes an annoyingly long time before David is attacked by gay bashers, a pivotal plot event preceded by overly detailed development of plot strands involving Caryn's catering business and her relationship with her best friend and neighbor Julie. Allan makes sure a lot is going on, but not all of it is equally engaging. Her sophomore effort is uneven, but she bravely continues to push the confines of Christian fiction. (Aug.)