Review: The Stranger In Central Park

The Stranger In Central Park by James Patrick Dillon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

​I so wanted this to be a book to help me in my spiritual beliefs. However, that was not to be. I will say that I enjoyed most of the story. A modern day Jesus arrives in Central Park in New York as a young woman is being raped. She has a room mate who loves her but Katie is not into girls though she is in approval of the lifestyle. Her brother, mayor of New York, once thought of as a potential presidential candidate before his affair is in a 'winner takes all' political fight with a rival that could remove him from politics forever. All of this in the first couple of chapters.

Then, Jesus appears. The story only calls him 'The Stranger' but it is clear by his words who the author is hinting it is. That is when I thought the story went south. It was clear that the author was trying to push his version of Christianity. While he has every right to do that, I was saddened when what could have been a great story turned in to a theological teaching.

Before you go negative and say that I disagree with the teaching and say that the book was bad for that reason, I would have said the same thing if it had agreed with my beliefs. Any time you use your platform to try to indoctrinate, I do not care for it. When the book is in the story it is great, but whole chapters where a theology of everyone is saved and I was wanting the book to end and soon.

Who should read? I would only recommend this if you can work around the preaching. As I said before, the story is very gripping as the stranger is urging people to put down the guns even though a World War seems to be approaching. Who is healed and who is not by the stranger leads to interesting questions. The idea of an 'eye for an eye' is even talked about in an interesting way. If you cannot get passed the teachings, then I would not suggest it for you.

I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley. This is an honest review.

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Review: The 49th Mystic

The 49th Mystic by Ted Dekker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from Interviews and Reviews and the publisher, Revel. What follows is an honest review.


The 49th Mystic is some heavy reading. The physical copy of the book that I received is 400 pages long. So in the physical sense it is a heavy book. In the story it tells, it is heavy as well. I usually put who I think would like the book at the end of my reviews. I am moving that to the top this time.


This book is written in the style of allegorical style of the Narnia books by C. S. Lewis. That is the last comparison I will make to Lewis here. The book is heavy with scripture references. So many in fact, the author has notes at the end of the book to tell us where to find them. For that reason, I would only recommend this to Christian friends. My only complaint with the book was if the author thought about his audience. I am sure that Mr. Decker being a bestselling author did. If he is writing to the Christians, he is preaching to the choir. I am not sure that non-Christians would get the references and if they do not, the book would become unreadable.


Story is very gripping. Rachel is a blind girl who lives in the small town of Eden, Utah. It seems that Eden was built in a valley. with only one way in and out. The man in charge of the town has built it so that when the apocalypse comes, he will shut the road down and the town will be self sufficient. Rachel, being blind has developed echo location, clicking and listening for the echos to see things. Yes this is real, visit ted.org and search for it, you will find a talk by a man who is blind and does it. So days she is blind but has some mobility. Nights, when she sleeps, she has dreams. Dreams where she can see and is being chased by an evil shadow man.


One day, when an experiment to bring her sight back does not seem to work, she is visited by a man named Vlad Smith (has to be the bad guy with a name like Vlad) who pricks her arm and now she can see. Her dreams have changed. She now sees clearly, but has been transported to a world not like ours. We get the impression it is set in her future. It is in this setting when she begins to see her purpose. She has been the one, called by Justin (obviously Jesus) to save Eden from Vlad but also restore harmony between the three groups of people in this time. To do this she will have to discover the five seals and meet the other mystics (48 of them?), but her time is short. The three groups of people are obvious if one knows Church history. They are not so clear if you do not.


When she falls asleep in one area she wakes up in the other. I kind of felt sorry for her after a while. She never really slept. At times, she doubted the other existence was real, only a dream, until she woke up in it.


I did enjoy the book. It was a gripping story. I did not like how it ended, set up for the next book, that it is a pet peeve of mine. As big as this book was I would say that another book was needed and the author wrapped up as many loose ends as he reasonably could.


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