Fiction Review: The Tenth Plague

Photo courtesy of Apolonia, Free Digital Photos

The Tenth Plague by Adam Blumer is one of those where-is-this-going, scared-to-death, what-next, can’t-put-it-down books. I loved it!

The plot is so different that at first I wasn’t sure if the author was saying what I thought he was saying. The Tenth Plague begins with the account of a long-ago mining cave collapse that killed all but one miner. Then begins the present-day story of a couple who’ve recently adopted a baby boy. Marc and Gillian have been invited to spend some time in a resort owned by a wealthy friend of Marc’s. They go, deciding to enjoy some time together and away from the pastorate for a few days. At the same time in the same resort, there’s a convention of Bible “translators” that are working on a new “Bible” combining Muslim and Christian texts into one. Protestors against the project are gathered outside.

All of a sudden, extremely weird things begin happening. A secretary turns on the faucet, and blood comes out. To her horror, she’s trapped in the bathroom, and the blood keeps coming out, overflowing the sink.

Then, a man dies, covered with . . . . I won’t tell you, but believe me, it’s horrible.

As the sheriff, Marc, and others come to grips with crimes mimicking the ten plagues of Egypt, the plagues keep coming.

Why?

Why did the perpetrator leave out the plague of the flies?

Why does the autistic boy keep disappearing, and where does he go? What is this boy trying to say through his drawings?

What is the cause of this? Who is guilty? Does he have accomplices?

When Marc begins to find out some of the answers, he finds danger of his own . . . and he is positive that, this time, he will die.

A thriller in every sense of the word, Blumer’s book is even scarier than his first book, Fatal Illusions, which I loved. There are several great Christian lessons in it, woven into the story about Marc and Gillian and the plagues crimes. It contains lessons about: forgiveness, trust, moving on, revenge, hatred, the challenges and beauties of autism, and more. Blumer says the seed idea for the book came from reading this Bible verse: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book (Revelation 22:19). If you’d like to read another review of this book and an interview with the author, you can access it on my friend Barbara’s blog here. (She's even hosting a giveaway of this book!)

Do you enjoy reading a good, clean, exciting (to put it mildly) thriller? The Tenth Plague is great! Five stars.

(Note: I don't usually publish two book reviews back-to-back, but I didn't want you to miss out on Barbara's giveaway of this book, should you want to sign up.)