Into the Fire

Around the blogosphere in recent times and periodically throughout each year, the subject of “voice” makes its rounds. Well, there is one voice in the author crowd that I have always enjoyed and maybe especially in his latest novel Perfect, and that is the voice of Dr. Harry Kraus who can be found with his wife on the medical mission field of East Africa.

Perfect is narrated by the wife of surgeon extraordinaire Henry J. Stratford, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S., F.R.C.S., a man who unintentionally wooed this trophy wife with his compassion after performing her gall bladder surgery. When she went against all her pastor’s daughter upbringing, risking it all during her final visit with him by wearing red lacy underwear (what if her father knew?!), literally throwing herself at him in the examination room daring him to kiss her and being gorgeous enough to pull it off, she hooked him and they were married, becoming the “perfect” couple accompanied by all the other “perfections”—at least from an outsider’s point of view.

However, as most of us know, nothing on earth is “perfect”, and so under the guise of shedding her hypocrisy and the utter boredom of her marriage to Dr. Perfect, she plans a trip to Jamaica with her piano teacher, the younger and hunky choir director at her father’s church which is located directly across the street from her stately mansion. When she has purchased the tickets and packed her bags, she decides to invite the attractive man to join her for a week of island romance. She sends him away from her seductive lesson giving him a short timeline to decide if he wants to join her, counting on a favorable decision. As she watches from a window of her home, she witnesses a semi tractor plow into his Honda without stopping. Everything in her life shifts to crisis mode after this startling event.

Wendi Stratford gives us an unflattering summary of herself and her life as we share in her first effort at outright imperfection and deliberate sinful behavior. Having suffered with crippling guilt her entire life, she is enduring a slow death, suffocating under the weight and pressure of everything she has failed to do “perfectly” without ever letting on anything is wrong. Hiding under what she terms “plastic” smiles and “Christian” appearances, she decides she can no longer endure the façade of perfection and her strained relationship with a God who she assumes has condemned her for her past and present constant imperfections.

If you want tart, crackling prose, this is the book for you. Harry Kraus has written a mystery centered on the failings of individuals who’ve been deceived into believing a variety of self-centered, empty philosophies to delude them away from the truth they desperately need to survive and provide their lives with something more than mere performances. A prideful surgeon, admired by colleagues, and seduced by his own abilities finds himself in a situation that threatens to destroy his wife and his career. Fearing the worst, he makes a desperate attempt to provide the “perfect” solution.

In spite of the character flaws in Wendi and Henry, Dr. Kraus has managed to make them desirable. Perhaps it’s their vulnerability, or the delusion of who they’ve become in their lives, but we care about them regardless of their conduct. The ending brought tears from this reader.

To give too much away of the story would rob future readers of an incredible treat by a writer who gives “authentic” an extra kick. This is one of those “must read” novels. Way to go, Dr. Kraus!

Father, you have gifted Harry in so many ways. I pray for your blessing upon him as he uses those giftings to bring you honor and glory. Continue to go before him and make his paths straight. Watch over him and his family. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

*Please continue to pray for Kristy Dykes and her family.*