James David JordanBesprekingen

This is the story of the Parst family. David Parst was a minister in O’Fallon, MO who seemed to have everything and then he threw it away in one night. He committed adultery. The husband of the woman he had a one night stand with commits suicide on David’s church steps.

What follows is the effect that one act had on his entire family for the rest of their lives. His wife - didn’t want to divorce him but couldn’t live with him. Shortly after their separation she is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. His son, Jack, who at 12 learns of his father’s affair in the middle of a church service where his father is giving the sermon and then sees the dead man on the front steps of the church. He is sure that the failure of his family, the man’s death and then his mother’s disease is all his father’s fault. Can he ever forgive him? David, himself, has failed God, his family and himself. Is there forgiveness?

Something That Lasts is an excellent, well written story. It tells of the strong faith in God that Sarah and David have that carry them through more than 30 years of challenges and struggles as well as good times. Realistically it also shows the bitterness Jack carries with him towards God and his father.

The third part of the book is about Jack’s life with Katie his wife and their son. It is about their tragedy and the pit that Jack falls into after losing his son. This part of the book is very emotional but also very inspirational. It is a long struggle but with his family’s love and faith Jack climbs his way out of the pit of despair he has fallen into.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Wow! Talk about gripping you by the throat and not letting go. That's how I felt when I read Forsaken. I did not want to put this book down. In fact, as I was working at my HOS job one evening at a local theme park, I had the book in my hand and one of the make-up artists asked me about it since she had seen me reading it on numerous occasions. After I finished reading the book, I passed it on to her, and she passed it on to her mom when she finished reading it--it's THAT good! (Did I mention that neither is a Christian, so I've been getting a few questions too?!)

If you like suspense thrillers, you'll be hooked by James David Jordan's writing. The subjects of loneliness, unconditional love, and crisis of faith are portrayed with reality as the characters are faced with seemingly impossible situations. You'll be sucked in as you first meet Taylor and her father on her birthday camping trip. You'll also weep for Simon as he must make a horrible choice to save his daughter Kacey from her terrorist kidnappers.

Forsaken by James David Jordan is a must have! You will not be disappointed.

I enjoyed this book. Sure, it was simple (not too many, if any unexpected plot twists), but sometimes that’s just what a person needs: an easy-breezy, straightforward path from point A to point b without the distraction of having to exert any intellectual effort.

The relationships felt flat, but considering this was book #2, and I didn’t read book #1, I found that easy to forgive; perhaps I missed something in the first story that would have filled-out the dynamics. On the up-side, there’s plenty of growth-potential here: Where will the relationship between Taylor and her FBI pal go? Is romance looming? How will Taylor’s relationship with her mom develop? Or will it?

I’m planning on back-tracking to read the first book, and if I stumble upon a book #3 at some point down the road, I’ll read that too. My biggest disappointment with the story was that I seemed to know who the villain was before the main characters did. I’m hoping Jordan’s other books will offer me the same light reading experience, but with a touch more suspense or surprise.

The best word to describe this book is Bland. It wasn't bad, it was just weak. On the one hand, it was a quick read, on the other, it'll be quickly forgotten.

Double Cross is full of hard to believe two-dimensional characters, a mystery less interesting than those found in the Sunday papers, and a lead with no charisma. Characters and locations are introduced with a sense of deus ex machina, and having played their part, exit the stage until needed again. As such, they are more readily identifiable by the parts they play than the names - the crazy estranged mother, the dead father, the sister/protectee, the FBI contact, the policeman, the character who only exists so the lead can go on a date and 20 more pages can be filled, the character you don't meet until halfway through the book who turns out to have done it - but you don't care by then, the heroine who has a troubled past but somehow has the perfect background for this situation. Lastly, the incredibly small glaze of Christianity that he spoons onto the characters at opportune moments comes across as forced, and to me does a disservice both to those who want an expression of faith in their stories (for not having enough, or having it properly integrated), and to those who don't (for it being shoehorned in and distracting from the story).

Now, admittedly, this is the second novel in this series, so there might be more for people who have read the first novel, but if the first novel is stronger, and therefore somewhat necessary to reading this book (which is a wholly separate storyline and not a sequel per se), then shame on the author for not doing a better job of introducing the new readers to the richer world.

Overall, I felt no empathy for any of the characters, no hook into the mystery, and no compulsion to keep going. I had no difficulty putting the book down whenever I came to the end of one of the very short chapters.

But if you want an entirely forgettable book that you can read in its entirety on your next plane ride, you could do worse than Double Cross.½

Forsaken is a pretty good story. It's about a private detective assigned to the security detail of a famous televangelist. It was interesting to read a Christian novel with main characters who have such a sordid history, but it was refreshingly real, too. The book is suspenseful enough that it kept me up late to find out what happened, but it seems to have several endings, never really wrapping itself up very well. The characters are interesting, though.

Overall, not a bad read.½

This is a quick book to read and an interesting little murder mystery with a few funny moments. A young woman who offers security services is helping the daughter of a close friend who recently died uncover proof that someone is embezzling money from her father's ministry. Seeking information, they chance upon an employee of the ministry who's apparently committed suicide, but is later confirmed have been murdered.

While she grapples with finding the murderer and keeping a reporter at bay, her mother, who left her 20 years ago, appears at her doorstep and expects their relationship sail smoothly into the sunset without explanation or apology.

There are a couple of odd scenarios and a character in the story which I thought could have been omitted because they weren't relevant to the main plot and neither did they add any value to the story.

It wasn't hard to guess who the murderer was though. Quite a bit of action and the developing relationship between our security officer and her mother is interesting.½

I would definitely read other books by this author. The story line was easy to follow, the characters were written well. If you like a "clean" read (meaning no profanity/sex) this you will like. The main character Taylor and her roommate finds the church assistant dead. Looks like suicide but the clues don't add up to suicide. In the meantime, Taylors mom shows up after being absent since she was a child. Lots of twists and turns and the end was surprising.
Reminded me of a Sue Grafton book.
After reading other reviews, I found out this was a Christian lit. but it must have went over my head (LOL) because it didn't seem like a mainstream Christian book.
Highly recommend and will be looking for other books by this author.

What an intriguing story through former Secret Service now Private Security Personnel Taylor Pasbury's eyes. The entire novel is told in a recitation with bits of humor as if in a verbal report. As a huge Alias/spy-type fan this story was a great fit in genre for me. It is shocking that I had not found author James David Jordan's work before, and now that I have I plan to read much more. I'm especially excited that as soon as I finish this review, I can start reading the sequel to this novel "Forsaken" which is called "Double Cross". Including some of the nit and gritty, this is a very realistic tale that brings to light the good and bad in people. Strength and forgiveness of ones-self are themes as well as terrorism plots and rescue attempts. This was one of those books where when I had to put it down to tend to something else I was amazed at how far I had already read. A page turner and a tool to delve into realism issues of the reader's own-self is only part of what makes this a great book. Highly recommended. *Thanks to Julie of B&H Books for a copy to review.*

After finishing the first book "Forsaken", I was eager to read the sequel "Double Cross" and I was not disappointed. It is good to note, that this book could easily be enjoyed read as a stand alone as well. The suspense and the action in this book was on a level up from Forsaken and the pages were turned even faster. I was astonished at how fast I read the book, but I just wanted to get to the next scene.This novel reunites a mother and child in a unique way and takes a reader through a gambit of emotions on whether or not they will appreciate the mother. The depth of character is realistic and invites a reader to delve into their own relationships looking at joys and woes. I recommend the reading of books by James David Jordan and look forward to more in the future myself.

What an intriguing story through former Secret Service now Private Security Personnel Taylor Pasbury's eyes. The entire novel is told in a recitation with bits of humor as if in a verbal report. As a huge Alias/spy-type fan this story was a great fit in genre for me. It is shocking that I had not found author James David Jordan's work before, and now that I have I plan to read much more. I'm especially excited that as soon as I finish this review, I can start reading the sequel to this novel "Forsaken" which is called "Double Cross". Including some of the nit and gritty, this is a very realistic tale that brings to light the good and bad in people. Strength and forgiveness of ones-self are themes as well as terrorism plots and rescue attempts. This was one of those books where when I had to put it down to tend to something else I was amazed at how far I had already read. A page turner and a tool to delve into realism issues of the reader's own-self is only part of what makes this a great book. Highly recommended. *Thanks to Julie of B&H Books for a copy to review.*

After finishing the first book "Forsaken", I was eager to read the sequel "Double Cross" and I was not disappointed. It is good to note, that this book could easily be enjoyed read as a stand alone as well. The suspense and the action in this book was on a level up from Forsaken and the pages were turned even faster. I was astonished at how fast I read the book, but I just wanted to get to the next scene.This novel reunites a mother and child in a unique way and takes a reader through a gambit of emotions on whether or not they will appreciate the mother. The depth of character is realistic and invites a reader to delve into their own relationships looking at joys and woes. I recommend the reading of books by James David Jordan and look forward to more in the future myself.

I could not put this down! I passed it on at work and it's been through 6 more people in only 3 weeks.

Don't let the "Christian Fiction" label scare you, Double Cross is well paced with believable characters, and doesn't go over the top "church-y". The mystery is the star of the show.

Mr. Jordan was new to me although Double Cross is his third mystery. Former Secret Service agent Taylor Pasbury -- tossed out for drinking and promiscuity -- has earned a reputation as a bodyguard and investigator. This book traces through a story apparently begun in an earlier book that circles around a suicide (or is it murder?) of a bookkeeper. The business is that of an Evangelist client who intentionally sought a dangerous post to be killed, despite the attempts of Ms. Padbury to protect him. What makes this book worth reading though are the fine characterizations and frailties of Ms. Pasbury. Some of the minor characters are less fully flushed-out but even there the language is crisp and moves the reader along swiftly. This is a solid entry in a crowded field and worth picking up for a satisfying, but quick, read.

Overall an excellent read for a rainy afternoon, the pace flows and the underlying detective story keeps one engaged. The Characters do not have the depth to them that i prefer, but it does not detract from the story. An author, I will look forward to reviewing future works from.½

This book was a quick read, and it kept me guessing until the end. I found it interesting that it was written in a first person female point of view, when it was actually written by a man. This works, however, because the main character was raised by a single father, and it makes sense that she would have some male characteristics and speech patterns, being a detective. But the tone was really more male than female.

The characters were a little slow in being properly fleshed out, but I didn't think it hurt the story.

I found a few incongruities in the story, which I won't explain because I don't want to ruin the story for anyone. All in all, I enjoyed this book.

This an okay book. The protagonist is a likable character with a sense of humor. The mystery is interesting in the first part but takes predictable turns near the end.

Be aware it is Christian fiction. It is aimed at a narrow audience. I expect this series will have trouble getting a secular audience. The writer is skilled and is a fine storyteller but the religious aspects at times seemed forced. The story will be moving along and you can almost feel the pressure to insert some Christian content.

I found this novel to be just OK. The suspense portion of the book was something that kept me interested, even though it was only moderately suspenseful. However,then the book seemed to go off in different directions at times, especially in a Christian slant. I found skipping through these off topic sections to get back to the action.

I don't believe I would find myself reading any other novels in this series.½

I didn't realize at first this was Christian fiction, a genre I don't generally read. That said, I appreciated that the narrative wasn't really preachy or sappy, and that the protagonist was kind of a doubter, a critical thinker (a quality I think is important for everybody). The protagonist, Taylor, is a secret service agent-turned private security provider. What I didn't like about her was her voice, which didn't ring true as a woman. I kept thinking of her as a man, and then would be jarred when references to her dating, looks, etc. came up again. I haven't had this problem with other women characters written my men, either.

The story was interesting enough--Taylor is trying to solve a suicide that might be murder and figure out who might have been blackmailing the victim. At the same time, the mother who abandoned her shows up and Taylor tries to reconnect with her and figure out what's happened in the twenty years since they were together. Still, I wasn't that engaged with any of the characters because I couldn't get a good sense of them. Their motivations weren't clear and it seemed like the author was doing a lot of telling and not a lot of showing.

It's not a terrible book, but not my cup of tea, either.

This is a good book for a time when you have a few hours to read it in one sitting. It is fast-paced with plenty of action. The ending is dramatic with an unexpected conclusion (although there's some clues to the villain's identity).
It's the story of a private investigator searching for an embezzler and a blackmailer (not the same person, but could be). In the course of her investigation, her long lost mother suddenly appears on her doorstep after an absence of 20 years. Coping with the investigation and the reunion with her mother is a challenge, the mother is slightly weird.
The writer's style type of story and main character (the PI) reminds me of Marcia Muller's books, but Muller is a more seasoned author (and generally better). In this book there's some story lines that go nowhere and you wonder whether they were meant as red herrings to hide the identity of the villain. It may be that some of them will be continued in sequels. For example the PI has a half-brother whose existence plays a large role in this book (the object of blackmail) but he never makes an appearance.
It will be interesting to read the next one in the series to see how the author's writing improves. I would not rush to read the prequel.

Previously having read overly religious and preaching books from this genre, I began this book with several preconceived ideas. I was pleasantly surprised however that the religious content was less than what I had imagined. This book is a fast read. In my opinion, a book which is considered a fast read can be a good book that you just dont want to stop or a book which in nature and style, is quick to read through. I feel that this book fits into the second category. The book is quite typical of the crime/detective genre, with a female in the narrative character role. While the character fits the mould of the troubled yet hard edged lead, I felt that the emphasis on the shady aspects of her past were somewhat predictable and added in for effect rather than adding to the substance of the book. There are aspects of the book which are bordering on needless violence in my opinion, which could have been omitted, so I could not recommend this for the weak stomached! Basically, the book is a crime story with religious overtones (especially towards the end of the novel when the main plot lines are coming to a conclusion) which isnt unlike most books in the detective style genre. It has a style of writing which is seemingly familiar, as is the plot. If you are a reader of the genre you may be disappointed - I thought it was ok for a "fast read"

This airport thriller is a good page turner: plenty of action as security consultant Taylor Pasbury investigates a suicide (or is it a murder?), meets her Mom (who had left the family when Taylor was a little girl) and becomes dragged in more deeply to her new step-father’s criminal activity and into the life of the young woman she is protecting.

I had four major disappointments with this novel:
It is set in Dallas. Now, I haven’t been to Dallas for 20 years. It’s a long way from Western Australia. I could have been in any city in the States. I would have liked more local colour, a stronger sense of place.

It ends with a long sermon from Taylor’s Mom on the unearned nature of God’s love. Grace, in the theological sense, did tie up the narrative on Mom, but it didn’t need to become the resolution and climax for the whole novel.

For a novel wearing its Christianity on its sleeve, the violence in it was strong and unnecessarily explocit. I do not need to know the harm that would be done to a man by a steel animal trap. The violence moves beyond the cartoon level violence of most thrillers to something almost nasty.

I was not convinced that Taylor Pasbury’s voice was a woman’s. Taylor is the narrator of the whole novel, and her language is that of a hard-boiled detective. The voice is consistent – but, for me, consistently wrong.
If you had nothing better available to read, you might enjoy Double Cross. My recommendation would be to find something more interesting.½

7/10
i thought this was a great novel. Unfortunately when I received this novel. I didn't know this was the second novel of the series.

I'm really looking forward to read James David Jordan's other novels

Double Cross, by James David Jordan, was an interesting side trip from the usual crime/mystery books I've read recently. The characters were at times almost too real, flawed and uncomfortable. I enjoyed the adventure, though I felt there was something missing from the story. Perhaps it was simply that there was so much emotion and change from the arrival of the protagonist's mother, or perhaps it simply wasn't as deep as I'd expected. I found my mind wandering to other possible storylines and felt the end was a little flat.

All in all an enjoyable read, though not challenging.

The book didn't grab me like I was hoping it would. I only found one part a bit of a page turner and then the ending was very anticlimactic. If I had known the Christian element was going to be as vital to the plot, I may have skipped this one. That being said, it was a decent read for the most part. It wasn't overly preachy (except towards the end), but I felt it was a bit lackluster in the suspense area. I think the author had a good plot but just didn't develop it to the fullest extent. The underdeveloped areas made the book lag. Just a bit "meh" in my opinion.½

Double Cross is the second book in a series. You don’t have to have read the first book to enjoy it, but it will explain a lot of the backstory. Jordan tries to cover as much of that as possible in this book, but you really can’t do that well in a sequel without irritating folks who read your first book.

Taylor Pasbury is a former Secret Service agent who has become a private security consultant/body guard. Her biggest client was an evangelist named Simon Mason, and she is still working for his ministry after his death (in the first book). There are questions of embezzlement after his death, and Taylor has everything she needs to prove that Simon wasn’t the one taking the money. She and Simon’s daughter Kacey arrive at the embezzler’s home to find her dead — apparent suicide.

Apparent is the important word, because things don’t seem quite right to Taylor. She continues investigating, and uncovers blackmail plots, prostitution rings, and far too many people trying to shoot her. And in the midst of it all, her long lost mother shows up, and seems to know far more than she’s telling.

Double Cross isn’t a hard book to read. An average reader will probably finish it in a day, maybe two. It’s a decent page turner as well; you’ll want to find out what happens next, and Jordan is very good at ending chapters with cliffhangers. An audio drama adaptation of the book would be interesting ….

The characters in the book are fairly stock. The daughter-of-a-famous-person who is trying to deal with her famous father’s death while continuing his work AND her own studies (and who also is a crack shot on the pistol range), the tough-talking, no nonsense female security specialist whose personal life is in a shambles, the FBI agent who is attracted to the aforementioned security specialist (no spoiler there – if you can’t figure this one out by page 50, you’re as oblivious as Taylor). The list goes on, and can be fairly annoying in it’s predictability.

If you pay attention while you’re reading, and think about what is going on, you’ll figure out whodunnit several chapters before Taylor does. That can be annoying, or it can be satisfying, depending on your perspective. I like being able to figure mysteries out before the characters in the book – it means that the author hasn’t held out on any important clues. But there were times toward the end of the book that I wanted to shake Taylor and yell at her, I got so frustrated with her inability to figure some things out.

And that right there is the mark of a good book — when you can forget that you’re reading a fiction book and want to interact with the characters. They may be flat, they may be stock, but you feel like you know them anyway. Double Cross isn’t a work of high literature that is meant to be analyzed by English majors hundreds of years from now, after all; it’s a mystery/thriller, and it’s meant to be enjoyed. And you will enjoy it.

Double Cross is published by B&H, and can be found at any Christian book store as well as most regular bookstores. The Christian themes are there, but aren’t heavy-handed at all (until the very end, when Taylor realizes what important lesson she’s learned in all of this). That seems to be a trend among Christian fiction lately; people are writing good fiction first, and making the faith connection peripherally if at all. This will expand the market for Christian fiction, but I wonder at what point it stops being Christian fiction and just starts being fiction. That’s a topic for another day, though.