Review – The Quest

When twenty-three-year-old Emma saw the incoming telephone call from her despised stepmother Katya, she walked out the apartment door “…and let it go to voicemail.”

She disliked Katya for so many reasons. The woman had taken Emma’s place and destroyed the close relationship she shared with her father Daniel when they married. When he became a born-again Christian Emma felt as if she lost him again. Then, when Katya convinced her father to move to Israel, an entire ocean away, as a missionary, Emma lost her father completely, or so she thought.

Emma finally picked up when Katya called the third time. She didn’t understand why the woman would call and not her father.

“Your father is missing,” Katya said, after their initial cool greetings. “I haven’t seen him for three days…he left on Monday and never came home…” Her voice sounded choked and hushed.

Emma couldn’t take in the rest of the conversation, or comprehend Katya’s apology for letting her know this way. She only knew her father was missing “half a world away.” She felt scared, “powerless—and alone.”

The next day, unable to sit and do nothing, Emma cashed in her savings bonds and boarded a flight to Israel, where out of fear and love, she would form an uncomfortable alliance with a woman she despised. Emma’s relationship with Katya was not unlike the climate of political tensions and escalating violence of the land she travels to, the Middle East.

The author’s provide “an evidence-driven presentation of the Christian faith” wrapped in a suspenseful, thought-provoking story of kidnap, danger and intrigue in a “coming-to-faith” narrative. The unique format uses brief chapters, letters, Katya’s journal entries and news articles from Israeli newswires to move the story along.

I would have liked the characters developed a bit more and biblical facts more an integral part of the storyline, except for the illustrations about Job, which were excellent. However, the book is a quick read and an excellent choice for anyone to read or anyone with unanswered questions about Jesus or Christianity.

The novel is the fiction arm of GodQuest, the major new book/DVD curriculum teaching series developed by McDowell that explores the reality of God, where he offers real answers to real questions.