Dateline Jerusalem: Zion Falling, by Daniel Reany

I want to thank Daniel Reany for sending me a copy of his book to read in exchange for a review. I apologize to him for how it took me to get to the book.

The writing is excellent, the story compelling and the tension is real life that you will find yourself caught up in the nervousness of Mark and Kathryn as they try their best to solve the issue of a terrorist attack on a bus load of tourists in Jerusalem.

Before I get to the main portion of the review let me say that I have always been frustrated with most Christian Novels. The reason is that they seem to present the gospel in a way that is pushy, or not true to life situations. They almost always seem forced or like the author is preaching rather than telling a story. In this novel Reany does not preach, he does not force religion on you, instead he carefully and in excellent form weaves the gospel into the story through Mark Wright's life. The witness he has is natural and true to character. It is well formed and doesn't just say, here is the Gospel, try and get it OK? Instead it is honest and talks about Mark's struggle to understand and accept the Gospel. Thus it is true to life and thus is more effective as a witnessing tool than other Christian novels.

Here is the story, Mark Wright is a reporter for a U.S. television station. He is not a main anchor. He is the guy that does stand up reporting from the scene of crimes or disasters or accidents. He is good at piecing things together and writing good copy on the spot and making the stories interesting and informative.

He gets called into the Station Manager's office one day and is assigned the task of going to Israel and putting together stories on a bus load of tourists that were killed in a bombing. The Israeli government is not releasing the bodies and the families are upset. They want their loved ones back. The station manager, Mr. Driver, knows one of the men and wants to help get the bodies returned to the United States.

Mark and Angie (one of the on screen personalities) are assigned to go to Israel and work on the story, file reports, and hopefully pressure the Israeli government into returning the remains to their families.

But nothing is ever as easy as it should be. The story is not straight forward. There are issues being hidden by the government. Can Mark and Angie find the answers? Well, actually can Mark find the answers, Angie is not much of help as she is pretty clueless to international stories and politics.

The story is well written. Mark will confront local terrorists and find that the story is not just about Israel, but it is also about the Muslims and the Dome of the Rock. There will be a huge story about end times religious prophecy and the return of the site of the Dome of the Rock to the Israelis to allow them to rebuild their temple on the original site.

I won't give much more info on the book, let me just say that you will enjoy the read and find that it is an adventure ride that will intrigue you and warm your heart as you see the Gospel lived out in one young man's life.

Enjoy!