Spitzer Zahn

Two missionaries started an evangelical radio station in the secular New England state of Montshire. An arsonist soon burned the station down.

Now the missionaries will try again, broadcasting from a two-acre island not far outside American waters. They will face Atlantic storms, committed apostates, and resolute terrorists. Along the way, their tiny island will become important to America's national security.

One shy, devout man will share the island with the missionaries. His lethal skills were nearly unmatched in his day. That was decades ago.

He's even more formidable now.

Spitzer Zahn begins with an arch-villainess called The Valkyrie taking the first steps to break her protege out of a high-security prison in the middle of nowhere. (How he got there's explained in Rebel's Trap.) She has a thoroughly good plan for that.

Meanwhile, eighty-year-old Amos Kirk and his fifty-something daughter, Rachel, start an evangelical radio station in the secular New England state of Montshire, only to see it go up in flames a few weeks into its operation.

The arsonist responsible for that blaze works for Wickham Skinner, pastor of the Electronic Church of Whatever, or eCOW for short. This growing organization espouses a pliable interpretation of the Bible. eCOW's theology is rather like five-star apostasy. It's highly profitable.

Their radio station now ashes, the missionaries try again. They will broadcast from a two-acre island not far outside American waters. They'll face dangerous Atlantic storms, eCOW's false teaching, and deadly terrorists. They'll have powerful friends along this time, one of them being fifty-something Mark East. He's the last of Blue Dog's elite Black Ops warriors, and one of America's best spies ever.

eCOW gets its own help. Before long, a sophisticated terrorist organization called The Movement subsidizes eCOW efforts to undermine Christianity. In The Movement's view, one cannot destroy America without first destroying Christianity, which did so much to make America strong. Heresy, in other words, becomes a serious weapon.

Thus begins not just good action-adventure, but also a compelling battle of ideas. Think of apologetics threatened not just by theological error, but also by assassinations. A huge wave comes along, too, and briefly submerges the island.

There's also a love story nestled in among the ongoing suspense. If that's still not enough, there's a beagle named Simpson. He's a big fan of a famous newspaper, The Manhattan SomeTimes.

Spitzer Zahn is longer than our normal Randall Jarmon novel, and likely could have been repackaged as two novels for strictly business reasons. Randall Jarmon, however, argued that splitting the story would have damaged its flow.

He's probably right, given the plot absolutely flies long. We think readers won't notice the length, but they'll welcome it if they do. When a novel is really good, you don't want it to stop, right?

MIKVELK Publishing, LLC