Now, I don't want to give away all my secrets when it comes to finding the book I choose to read for my "Coffee and a Book" blog. I will confess, though, that in the past it has had a lot to do with eye-catching colors and the thickness (or thinness) of the book. This month's choice was a little different. Since I had some extra time to browse Sugar Grove Church's Resource Center, I thought it might be interesting to find a book that has not been read by many people. It's probably a good thing (as far as the Resource Center is concerned) that I didn't find a book that had never been checked out, but I did find a book that had only been checked out twice in the last 5 years or so. Hmmm, as I write this though, I realize just because there are only two dates stamped on the back, that doesn't mean only two people read it, because it appears I neglected to actually check the book out myself! But you get the idea: this particular book does not seem to have a high rate of circulation.
The book I found is Who's Grace by James R. Coggins. On the cover the book, it says this book is "A John Smyth Mystery." Apparently, it is the first of three books in the mystery series. Coggins' book takes place in Winnipeg, Canada, where John Smyth is the editor of a church denominational magazine (as is the author of the book), who thinks he witnessed a murder from his airplane as it prepared to land at the Winnipeg airport. He decides to report what he saw, but (surprisingly enough) is met with skepticism by both the Winnipeg police and the Mounties.
The book takes all sorts of fantastic twists and turns (at one point even the "religious fanatic" John Smyth himself is suspected) and can be quite fascinating. It is a nice, quick read that tells an interesting story while sharing the idea of God's grace and what all that entails with the reader.
Who's Grace can be a little tricky to follow sometimes with quite a few scene changes that can be rather abrupt. There are also a lot of characters to keep track of in this book, and there really isn't much depth to any one character, which I found a little frustrating. I wonder if the author was setting up some of them for future appearances in his series. I won't ruin the ending for you, but I will say you won't see it coming and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way.
Overall, I would say Who's Grace is a nice little story to read. It wasn't a great book, but is a good book and it is probably worth "checking out."
