ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
I started writing my first novel during my last year of surgery training at UK. I was a chief resident, and started writing Stainless Steal Hearts in a call room at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Lexington. It was a crazy time to write! I had a very demanding schedule, often spending days and nights in the hospital. I had two sons at that time, and I recognized the wisdom in my wife's urging: "Now doesn't seem the right time for this dream."
My experience as a writer is far from typical. Having received my formal training in biology and chemistry and medicine, my only preparation for a writing career was a love for reading. The longest thing I'd written before my first novel was a term paper in undergraduate school. My first novel was accepted by Crossway Books and published in 1994, and it wasn't until after I had FOUR published novels that I even opened a book of instruction about the craft of writing fiction. This is not what I recommend to others! Yes, I was successful, but I was bending the "rules" without knowing it. I had a natural talent for plotting, but I realize my initial success may have stunted my growth as a writer. I'd have made faster progress if I'd have gone to the fiction teachers sooner.
I have three sons: Joel, Evan, and Samuel. Look closely in all of my books and you'll see them there. My lovely wife, Kris, provides the basic composition for all those beautiful, athletic, dedicated women in my novels.
ABOUT THE BOOK
They hover between life and death, their hearts stopped on the surgery table. And the messages Dr. Jace Rawlings’ open-heart surgery patients bring back from beyond the grave cannot be ignored. For they predict the deaths of people around him, and point a finger of suspicion straight at him.
It thrusts Jace into a firestorm of controversy and danger. A maeltsrom blown by the darker winds of political intrigue and spiritual warfare. And the forces working against him will do anything to stop him from uncovering a truth they will kill to hide. He’d come to Kenya to establish a heart-surgery program for the poor. But what he will find in that place where he grew up will put everything at risk–his marriage, his career . . . his life.
If you would like to read the first chapter of An Open Heart, go HERE.
My Review:
I thought that this was a great story about believing in fate, and angels. To be able to get a message from the dead is definitely something I believe in. What is even weirder for me is that my dad had open heart surgery, a stroke during it, and always told us that he saw people. He told us that he died once, and he only ad a certain number of years left to live. He was only a few years off, which I think Go let him see my niece and nephew. My other niece was born on the one year anniversary of his death!
To do what the messenger wants you to do is something different though. As Jace learns he made the right decision by delivering the message. It plays a huge roll in his future, and in fact his life. I was a little confused about Jace's relationship with his wife. I was not sure what was going on and how she could go from wanting to separate to trying to prove his innocence. I would have liked a defining moment or epiphany. I liked that Jace was trying to help the less fortunate. I was impressed by his hunger to save lives. I felt bad for Jace and the string of bad luck he got when returning to Kenya. However it all came together at the end, and the ending gave me closure.
I liked this book, and am giving it a 4/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own!
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