Tim Alberta starts The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory on the worst day of his life. While he was being interviewed on the Christian Broadcasting Network about his prior book, American Carnage, his father dropped dead. Dick Alberta was an evangelical pastor and as Tim stands in the funeral receiving line with his brothers, parishioners - people who have literally known Tim all his life - take the opportunity to berate him for criticizing Rush Limbaugh. This, and a nasty letter sent after Tim's eulogy calls out the politicization of religion, inspired his next book. It's a bit more of an insider's view of evangelicalism's takeover by right wing politics than Kristen du Mez's Jesus and John Wayne and it's clear that Alberta holds a deep Christian faith. While he discusses religious figures like Jerry Fallwell Sr. (more interested in power) and Jr. (more interested in money) who don't follow the path, he focuses on ministers and theologians who are being pushed out because they don't preach right-wing politics. Their story has been neglected, and Alberta also points out that the loudest, most prejudiced voices often belong to people who are also doing many of the congregation's good works. However, I don't believe that they're as small of a minority as Alberta states (or perhaps wants to believe). If they truly were only a "vocal" 15-20% of their sects, could they have so completely taken over their churches?
Monday, April 8, 2024
Secrets of the Nile
Secrets of the Nile finds Lady Emily and her husband Colin in Egypt, along with his mother and Katharina, his daughter from a prior relationship. This time, it's not business but an invitation from the elder Mrs. Hargraves's former suitor. At the first dinner Lord Bertram Deeley gives for his odd assembly of guests, the host promptly dies - poisoned by his daily tisane. Of course, everyone has a motive to kill him and questionable clues point to the least likely suspects. Tasha Alexander provides a well supported but surprising solution, although I found it to be a bit of a letdown. She also includes a parallel story, one of a woman sculptor in Ancient Egypt and her conflict with her sister-in-law which was interesting but didn't tie in with the main plot as Alexander's other parallel stories have in the past. Overall, Secrets of the Nile was entertaining but a middling entry in the series.
The Turn of Midnight
Minnette Walters couldn't have known. She published The Last Hours in 2017 and Turn of Midnight in 201. How could she have known that in 2020, shortly after I read her novel of plague survival, that COVID-19 would shut down the world? Normally, I would have read The Turn of Midnight shortly after The Last Hours but in March of 2020 I didn't have the concentration tor had any book, let alone one about a plague. The two books fit together so well, though, that I recommend reading them back to back.
The Turn of Midnight begins immediately after The Last Hours Develish has survived the plague and men are approaching. It's not an invasion, but Thaddeus Thurkill and the five youths who've been scouting for signs of life returning with sheep taken from an abandoned village. On their next trip, they're set upon by a local lord and his men. Somehow, after the boys kill his men ant Thaddeus humiliates him, the lord agrees to return to Develish where he sees the wisdom of Lady Anne's ways. He returns to is manor, with the late Sir Richard's steward Hugh (the only person who opposes Lady Anne's ways) while Thaddeus masquerades as a lord and Anne's kinsman and the five young men as his retinue, searching for Lady Eleanor's abandoned dowry and signs of life.
Eventually, Thaddeus and his retinue reach a manor where Hugh has told the steward that "Lord Athelstan" is actually a bastard serf named Thaddeus, turning the final third of the book into a combination of conspiracy and courtroom drama. Thaddeus's calmness, Lady Anne's intelligence, the sigils of both their retinues, and Walters's deft writing provide a believable and satisfying conclusion.