STORY SUMMARY
The community of Rejoice is a tiny village made up of fundamentalist Christians. The community is considered a "beacon of stability" in the Alaskan icy interior. The person who leads the community is known as Elder Moses Wright. He's the one who led the group of followers to this very unlikely spot in the Alaskan wilderness. It wasn't easy to establish and some people left. And now? The disappearance of Faith Wright, Elder Moses' granddaughter and daughter of Thomas Wright, is a new experience for them. She is only 17 years old and a senior in the local regional high school where she opted to go instead of the Christian school in Rejoice.
In the past, some members have died of injuries at the mine or natural causes and some people just couldn't handle the struggle of living in the Alaskan wilderness in a community with many rules and regulations, but no one has simply disappeared.
What caused this honor student and granddaughter of Elder Moses to just vanish?
Is it connected with her choice of spending "more time in the world?"
Does it have something to do with the next town over named Devil's Toe, and the seedy roadhouse that has been Rejoice's squalid counterpart?
Something that all the Elders of Rejoice agree on is that something needs to be done and they really can't handle this problem of a missing teenaged girl on their own. It's time to turn to the outside world to get some help.
They hire Nik Kane, who is a decorated former detective with the Anchorage Police Department, and fresh out of prison where he's been serving time for shooting a murder suspect due to a witness coming forward saying Nik had used deadly force on an unarmed young man. Nik's years in prison (7 long years) have cost him his marriage and his career. He has been encouraged to retire from the Anchorage PD and has gone into private investigation. Looking into Faith's disappearance is his first gig.
The search for Faith...and his own spiritual faith journey....takes him down some dangerous paths. He has been searching for his own faith and sadly turned to alcohol before prison. He vows to never turn to the bottle again. But.... he comes face to face with some horrible crimes that are being committed not only in Devil's Toe but also in Rejoice.
Where is Faith Wright? And will Nik be able to find her?
MY THOUGHTS
This was a really interesting and different kind of mystery from what I usually choose to read.
The setting is stark like I imagine inner Alaska to be.
The character development is really well done. I feel like I "knew" some of these fictional characters and sadly, one of the people mentioned reminded me of some not so good "Christians" from my past.
The author himself used to be a journalist in Alaska who exposed the power plays of the elite and who sough justice for exploited people. This novel exposes the dark heart of humanity.
The themes in this book are: extreme fundamentalism; secrets; the sex trade; adult/minor relationship; marital difficulties/divorce; childhood sexual abuse; pornography; alcoholism; feminism; patriarchy; suicide
This book was good and it was interesting that the author chose various Scriptures to go with each chapter.
The ending is somewhat predictable (I had guessed what happened to Faith early on which just shows that I definitely know parts of the issues the author writes about). What I didn't like is how the perp ended up. I wish the ending had been different. I don't want to say too much as then it would ruin it for you but let's just say......was justice served?
I liked that this book didn't include explicit scenes nor many crass words/swear words.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some mature content).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
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