We are all awaiting

Blurb:

"Beneath a cloak of darkness and mystery, it has arrived ...

Palestine: 1948 - With the winds of war fast approaching an scrupulous archaeologist finally finds the remains of the man he's been shearing for ... unfittingly releasing an ancient evil on the world.

White River, Arkansas: 1980 - In a secret lab, top-level medical scientists work together to harness the power of previously unheard of DNA manipulation.  But when the project finally comes to fruition with the birth of a specially"designed" baby.  It just as abruptly comes to a bloody halt, with the facilities and nearly every member of the team wiped out, silenced forever ... almost.

White River, Arkansas: 2019 - The small town awakens one morning to find itself ground zero of a joint UN-US terrorist training exercise.  Residents face martial law, a cashless economy, and a host of ruthless leaders seemingly bent on making the maneuvers more than just a military operation.  Outraged citizens begin to rise up and fight back, but it soon become clear that something evil has arrived in White River ...

A darkness unleashed on an unsuspecting world."

Review:

As a fervent Matthew Riley, Raymond Khoury fan I thought this would suit my need for factual based mystery thrillers with a bit of sci-fi thrown in. 

I would not say that this was the easiest read ever but it was very thought provoking.  There were three distinct timelines in this novel 1948, 1980 and 2015.  Each time-line provided an interesting element to the story. 

The relationship between the two main characters of the 1948 part of the novel was not explained in enough detail and left this reader scratching their head later in the novel.  The 1980s DNA sections were interesting but gruesome; and it is this reader’s fervent hope that such things did not and do not continue to occur.  The way the three storylines merge is interesting to say the least.  Yet slightly fantastical!

This novel started really well and this reader’s initial assumption made concerning the ‘unnamed Jew’ was incorrect yet my second guess turned out to be correct.  But how one gets from a despot Jew to the antichrist is too much for this reader to comprehend.  There were quite a few places where the detailed dialogue not only did not ring true but affected the action and pace of the novel.  I am not sure if this is intended as part of the ‘preachy’ part of the novel or something that just happened but it did detract from the whole experience.

The story is told in the third party and therefore throughout the book the point of view (‘POV’) changes which can be rather confusing for the inattentive reader.  That said this reader followed the story easily.  The story itself was well paced with loads of action (it may have even left the way open for a sequel).  The book also dealt with many ‘taboo’ issues with a great deal of grace.

This reader felt that the ending was rushed, unless the author intends to produce another novel in the series and then the novel ended just right.

It is this reader’s fervent hope that this does not happen but then again would the antichrist use those people who are the dregs of society – somehow this reader does not think so.  This novel got me to question my faith to a degree and in so doing resulted in me deepening my faith (not too bad for a novel!).

I rated this 4 stars on Netgalley and 'I liked it' on Goodreads (3 stars) and Amazon (4 stars).