Into the Fire

Paul Robertson’s third novel According to their Deeds is up for the CFBA Blog Tour, and for me it falls somewhere in between his first and second novels in appeal. I’ve never been quite sure what exactly the genre reference “cozy mystery” means, but I suspect this story is one of them. I am definitely not the target audience for this book even though I can appreciate Paul’s writing.

Charles Beale and his lovely wife Dorothy own a rare books store in Alexandria. A meandering tale of blackmail with political implications, murder, antiques, and hidden records of secret transactions stuffed in a rare edition of a collection of historical books, it follows the efforts of Charles to discover how “to do the right thing”. In the process he meets the victims of the blackmail attempts and encounters their suspicions that he knows their misdeeds.

From his personal investigation he finds the associates of his wealthy chess acquaintance and rare book buyer Derek Bastien whose political and life philosophies couldn’t be farther from those of Charles. The multi-layers of Derek’s discussions and challenges to Charles carry on in Charles’ memory after Derek’s death.

The cast of unusual characters includes the closed personality of the young man Angelo who threatened Charles with a knife to rob him but was captured and released to Charles and his wife at their request under the rules of his probation. We slowly learn of Charles’ and Dorothy’s son, William, who suffered from mental illness resulting in suicide.

The interaction and personalities of antique collectors and booksellers is just shy of nutty at times but clever and witty at others. The dialogue is sometimes strange, and Charles and Dorothy remind me of a British couple with their low-key repartee mixed with witticisms and symbolism. However, it sounds like they should be much older in years than I believe they’re supposed to be and in spite of their formal speech, it is obvious they share an intimacy both strained and enhanced by sorrow.

Anyway, this is a slow moving mystery with plenty of diversions and purposeful suspicions, but the clues are there to discover the perpetrator of the long time coming acceleration toward the tidy conclusion.

We’ve recently talked about “Christian” novels written without overt references to salvation and godly conduct or practices. This novel gives examples of evil behaviors while contrasting them to the desire to act rightly and with mercy. The biblical reference from Revelation of judgment for the lost “according to their deeds” will be recognizable to people of faith. Not so much to an unbeliever in spite of the scriptural quote at the beginning of the novel. I believe Paul accomplishes his objective in this novel. I’m just not sure who his audience will be.

Father, you know what your desires are for Paul. I pray, Lord, that you would make them clear to him. Please continue to watch over him and bless him with your directions in his life and the desire to follow them. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.