It has now been over a month since I completed the book Presumed Guilty by James Scott Bell, and as I thought I had already written a review, I had moved on to other reading materials. It has come to my attention that I never posted a review and so here I am, the last of the ACM Reviewers for Presumed Guilty, so I’ll get right to it. :-)

In short, I really enjoyed this book. This book was not slow moving in any sense of the word. Mr. Bell jumped straight into the conflict of the story, amost before we even knew the characters well enough, and the book was hard to put down after the first few chapters.

The plot had several unexpected twists and turns and in the course of the story the gospel was clearly presented through the doubts and personal struggles of the characters. The only caveat I would offer with this book is that there is an element of darkness and evil that the more sensitive reader might be inclined to want to avoid. Despite the fact that the author deals with real and difficult problems, there are some who may prefer to stick with more benign subject matter than pornography, murder, addiction, adultery and evils that exist even within the church.

Consider the responses from Mom2Mom Connection:

After I finished it, I wanted to get away from it for a while because it contained so many distasteful images for me. Then I realized what the author’s main message was, and how he skillfully wove a tale that allowed me to see how faith in God can bring a family through ANYthing, even something as disgusting as what took place between the pages of Presumed Guilty.

Contrasted with that of Two Talent Living:

I received this book, started it, skimmed through some of it, and made the decision I would not read it. It is because I simply do not want the dark, graphic images in my mind. I don’t even want the ones that are there now because I checked the book out and read/skimmed parts of it.

In short, the book is about a popular pastor of a megachurch who is accused of murdering a young woman of questionable reputation. (Sorry, due to Google searches, I’m not spelling it all out here.) His wife is trying to find out the truth. I realize this sound rather innocuous, but as it all plays out, all kinds of things happen that I’m simply not going to write about on this blog.

I don’t know where the line is to be drawn for Christians regarding what we are to put into our minds. Perhaps there are some Christians who can read this kind of book and not be impacted spiritually and emotionally by it. I don’t know. I’m not their personal Holy Spirit and I guess it is enough of a gray area for a lot of folks that Christians have to make their own choices. For me, it is not enough that the characters are Christians trying to work out their faith in extremely difficult circumstances. That “redeeming” aspect of it doesn’t erase the images, storylines and dialogue that become a part of me when I read something like this.

If you’re looking for a thrilling mystery, a page turner that will keep you awake too long at night, and a book that integrates real faith into the lives of characters with real character flaws and struggles, then this book is for you! I would pick up another James Scott Bell book in a heart beat.

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Note: This book was given to me from Active Christian Media as a gift from the publisher for the purpose of review.