Into the Fire

Davis Bunn is a multi-published author of contemporary and historical fiction, an award winning and bestselling novelist with books translated into fifteen languages and sales upward of five million novels. In other words: he’s a consummate professional writer. My Soul to Keep published by Bethany House is a classic example of why this is so.

Bunn’s presentation of flawed and vulnerable heroes usually consists of men who’ve made their share of ruinous mistakes either in their lifestyles and/or in their relationships and have suffered the consequences. Usually when we meet them, they’re struggling to recover from whatever dirt they’ve done or experienced, and they certainly aren’t thinking very highly of themselves as a result. The plots aren’t complicated but usually involve interesting characters and carefully designed intrigue and are able to take the reader on a specific and focused journey with parallel antagonists working against the main characters.

Having written a story about an actor myself, I was especially interested to read My Soul to Keep which features a humbled movie star who gambled with the devil and lost in the prime of his career. Incarcerated, banished, and reviled by Hollywood, when this story begins he keeps himself occupied with a landscaping business in Texas and does local theatre to satisfy his need and call to act. Through an odd series of circumstances, he is given the opportunity of a lifetime via a wealthy southern businessman.

My Soul to Keep makes no bones about being a Christian novel. The protagonist Brent Stark found Jesus Christ in prison, attends AA meetings led by a pastor who fell from grace but is restored, and outside of the acting he has found to do, his true friends in the area are all people of faith.

Davis Bunn knows his target audience well and dishes up a leading man sure to grab hearts and hold on to them right up to the final words. The cover design is attractive and perfect. In contrast to this leading man we see a picture of Hollywood types behind the scenes with their cutthroat attempts at demolishing the efforts of every competitor and crushing lives in the process. Depicting the power struggle with cunning characters, Bunn portrays the underbelly of the movie industry with insider knowledge.

My Soul to Keep is not new, released in 2007, but the story is ageless, entertaining, eye-opening, and, yes, inspirational. It’s commercial fiction all the way, but it’s a good story and worth the time it takes to read.

Father, thank you for those who write the “good” stories, who labor for you in the writing world without shame by telling interesting stories which reveal faith at its best and worst and portray unconditional love and real redemption in the process. Davis Bunn is one of these authors, and I pray you would continue to supply him with the stories you want told by his hand. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.