Book Review: A Cross to Kill by Andrew Huff

A gripping debut thriller pits a man of God against terrorists—and his own deadly past.

John Cross is a small-town pastor, bent on leading his flock to follow God's calling. He's not the sort of man one would expect to have a checkered past.

But the truth is that the man behind the pulpit preaching to his sheep was once a wolf--an assassin for the CIA. When John decided to follow Christ, he put that work behind him, determined to do penance for all the lives he took. He vowed never to kill again.

Now someone wants the peaceful pastor to pay for his sins with his own life. And when a terrorist out for revenge walks into the church, John's secrets are laid bare. Confronted with his past, he must face his demons and discover whether a man can truly change. Can he keep his vow--even when the people he loves are in mortal danger? Will his congregation and the brave woman he's learning to care for be caught in the cross fire? In the end, John's life may be the only sacrifice he has left to offer. . .

Andrew Huff's thrilling debut is not only a riveting story of suspense, it's also a deep exploration of the moral quandaries that face those who choose to follow the Prince of Peace in a violent world.

My rating:

A Cross to Kill started out with a bang—Christine, reporter in Jordan about to get executed on-camera, is suddenly rescued by a mysterious man that disappears as soon as he ushers Christine to safety. Definitely a hooker scene.

John Cross is an enigma to most people—ex-CIA-turned-preacher. Quite a combination that made me dying to read the book once I read the synopsis. The writing style was hooking, yet there were instances where it almost seemed to pull me away from the story.

For instance, the writing style is quick and lively, describing few details, and yet I was okay with that because of how the story was. But every once in awhile, it was as if a big, descriptive word was thrown into the middle of a sentence just to let the reader know that the story was worth reading.

USING BIG WORDS WHEN IT DOESN'T FIT THE REST OF THE STORY DOESN'T WORK. It doesn't make the story sound more intelligent or whimsical; on the contrary, it makes it sound like the author is making too big an effort to pull the reader in, when in actuality, it does the opposite.

So. Mini rant over, I really did enjoy the plot and characters:

-John Cross himself. That dude is nuts (I mean . . . being a preacher is his day job but he takes covert missions to rescue people??) but he's fabulous all the same. Kind of a cross between Walker, Texas Ranger and MacGyver. Except present day. With stun guns.

-Christine was pretty good . . . this might be considered a spoiler, but I appreciated her respect for John's privacy and his plea to stay out of the media. She wasn't the ultra-annoying, anything-for-a-story reporter.

-John's congregation was amazing and I love Lori.

-Guin. Guinnnnn. She was funny, in her own way. *Smirks*

What I wanna know is, whyyyy must they be attracted to each other at first sight?! Dude rescues girl from mortal danger, so she's probably going to be naturally attracted to him; he saved her from death. BUT. For some reason he just can't get her out of his mind! Wow! They've known each other for a couple of hours, and already he feels overprotective of her, almost ready to blow his cover just so he can talk to her over the phone!

*Coughs* Sorry this wasn't intended to be a rant review.

But there's more. 

Let's talk about love triangles, shall we?

Now, I'll give a disclaimer and say that THE LOVE TRIANGLE WASN'T MAJOR. In fact, it was barely there. BUT. Girl likes guy. Guy likes girl. Other girl likes guy. Girls glare at each other, particularly the one not in the guy's sights. So that was . . . interesting. But how it all worked out was swell.

OKAY SO THOSE LAST SCENES. The suspense and drama of the entire book allllll built up to those last scenes. And suddenly . . . it's over? 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if only one scene in particular is mentioned in the book's synopsis, shouldn't it be at the very least longer than just a few pages? I mean, I was waiting and waiting for this scene because I was excited to see what happened . . . and then it was suddenly over and done with.

So, yes, the book was good, just not quite my thing. ;)

Just sayin', I'm in no way bashing the author! The book just happened to use several of my pet peeves and that tends to get me on a rant.

*I received a free e-copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Are you going to give this one a try? Let me know what you think if you do!