CFBA Blog Tour and Book Review: Judgment Day by Wanda Dyson

This week, the


Christian Fiction Blog Alliance


is introducing


Judgment Day  WaterBrook Press (September 21, 2010)


by  Wanda Dyson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Wanda Dyson – "a shining example of what Christian fiction is becoming..." (Christian Fiction Review). She's been called a "natural" and a "master of pacing," but her fans know that whether it's police thrillers, suspense, or bringing a true story to life, Wanda knows how to take her readers on a journey they'll never forget.

Wanda is a multi-published suspense author, currently writing for Random House/Waterbrook. Her one attempt at a nonfiction book was picked for an exclusive release on Oprah. In addition to writing full time, she is also the appointment coordinator for the CCWC, Great Philadelphia Christian Writers, and ACFW conferences.

Wanda lives in Western Maryland on a 125 acre farm with a menagerie of animals and when she's not writing critically acclaimed suspense, or away at conferences, you can find her zipping across the fields on a 4-wheeler with Maya, her German Shepherd, or plodding along at a more leisurely pace on her horse, Nanza.

With the release of her newest hit, Judgment Day, Wanda is heading back to the keyboard to start on her next high-octane thriller, The Vigilante.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Sensational journalism has never been so deadly.


The weekly cable news show Judgment Day with Suzanne Kidwell promises to expose businessmen, religious leaders, and politicians for the lies they tell. Suzanne positions herself as a champion of ethics and morality with a backbone of steel—until a revelation of her shoddy investigation tactics and creative fact embellishing put her in hot water with her employers, putting her credibility in question and threatening her professional ambitions.


Bitter and angry, Suzanne returns home one day to find her deceased boyfriend, Dr. Guy Mandeville’s nurse, Cecelia Forbes, unconscious on her living room floor. Before the night is over, Cecelia is dead, Suzanne has her blood on her hands, and the police are arresting her for murder. She needs help to prove her innocence, but her only hope, private investigator Marcus Crisp, is also her ex-fiancé–the man she betrayed in college.


Marcus and his partner Alexandria Fisher-Hawthorne reluctantly agree to take the case, but they won’t cut Suzanne any slack. Exposing her lack of ethics and the lives she’s destroyed in her fight for ratings does little to make them think Suzanne is innocent. But as Marcus digs into the mire of secrets surrounding her enemies, he unveils an alliance well-worth killing for. Now all he has to do is keep Suzanne and Alex alive long enough to prove it.


Watch the book trailer:




If you would like to read the Prologue and first chapter of Judgment Day, go HERE.

My thoughts:

Spectacular and intense are just two words to describe how great this book was!  I didn't have any doubts initially that it wouldn't be a great book because I've read one of Ms. Dyson's books in the past, and was equally amazed then by her great gift of suspenseful storytelling.

This book had high energy and action all the way through with enough twists and turns to rival a back-woods, off-the-main-drag road.  There were times when I didn't know who could be trusted, who had a secret, or who had a hidden agenda.  It wasn't so much a case of "whodunit" as it was "now I know who's in charge, and I need to know what they're going to do next."

What really confused me, though, was the book's description.  See, the back of my book says this:  "Bitter and angry, Suzanne returns home one day to find an entrepreneur she is investigating, John Edward Sterling, unconscious on her living room floor."  First of all, John Sterling wasn't an entrepreneur in the story; he was a senator.  He was a main character throughout the story, mostly through word of mouth.  The person that was actually unconscious (and later murdered) in Suzanne's home was a nurse that had barely been mentioned before this scene was set up.  I can't help but wonder what the deal was with this mix-up.  Had it been the senator as the murder victim, it would've been a completely different story.  Instead, it's a sort of no-name character that had very little purpose in the story as a whole.

In spite of the description issue, Judgment Day was still an incredible story, and I had it finished it in a day.  Wanda Dyson is yet another author whose past novels need to make their way into my hands at some point down the road...she's that good.  :o)

4 Stars

**Many thanks to WaterBrook through CFBA for providing a copy for review.