Grant Leishman

JC, alias Jose Christian Castillo, alias Jesus Christ, Son of God, is in Manila because he interceded with his father in heaven to spare the earth from destruction, that place his father had already sent him to more than two thousand years ago, but which an angry God now says is just as much of a cesspit as it ever was. Grudgingly, his father agreed to give him a second go, lasting no longer than a year, and decreed that his son’s destination should be the Philippines, one of the three reasons for choosing that country being the need to put paid to the money grubbing antics of a televangelist impostor pretending to be the Son of God.
On earth, JC is as charismatic as ever. He easily recruits seven disciples who work in the seedier sides of Manila nightlife. The guileless six men and one woman are easily overawed by the power of his words, even if his vision statement is long on vague promises about wanting to get them all into something good but short on the details of actual implementation. Before JC can lay out the plan his disciples are waiting for, he gets knocked unconscious in a traffic accident and forgets who he is. The disciples are around him when he comes back to himself in the hospital, and as eager as before to find out what he wants them to do. But it is only when the Archangel Michael comes to give JC a kick up the a..s to remind him that he has already used six months of his allotted time on earth that he remembers his mission. Michael orders him to take his troop of dew-eyed disciples to confront the impostor Adonis in Davao, where Adonis’s next step in adding to his ill-gotten millions will be another giant meeting.
This seems to be the first job of work JC has engaged in since the crucifixion. In Leishman’s novel he seems to have whiled away two thousand years in heaven as a couch potato. Heaven is a place he eventually describes as boring compared to life on earth. On earth his main personality trait seems to be inconsistency. At one moment he can perform worldwide miracles, such as making a cross appear in the sky, or transport himself instantaneously from one end of Manila to another and appear miraculously in a meeting. At another time it’s too difficult for him to get a clear picture of where one of his kidnapped disciples is in danger of death. He can save himself from dying, he can bring a child back to life, and yet he can’t avoid getting killed in a knife fight with terrorists. It is only the faith of his disciples that brings him back to life after the killing.
JC’s disciples provoke a commotion in the impostor’s crowd at the big meeting and the impostor manages to get himself shot and killed by his own security detail. JC kisses the edges of the man’s wound, which closes up and heals in front of the cameras filming the event live and transmitting it to the duped Filipino faithful wherever they are in the world. Adonis, the impostor comes back to life a reformed man. He regrets the error of his ways and he turns the keys of his religion and its hundreds of millions of dollars of assets over to JC and his disciples.
News of this miracle frightens the gerontocratic Catholic Cardinals in Manila. They use their network of influence to get JC charged with practicing medicine without a license, the proof being the way he had healed the impostor in front of the TV cameras. JC gets off the charge, and then decides to take on the Catholic Church itself. Everything his father has wished for just seems to fall into place without much further effort from JC, Catholics get over their schisms, even the two Koreas decide to bury the hatchet. In his two or three hour work days, JC has plenty of time to spend on the beautiful beaches of the Philippines, mooning over Ma, his only female disciple (his Mary Magdalene, a single mother and former cam-girl with a heart of gold), and get up to innocent boyish pursuits with his puckish male disciples. There are some set pieces that could be a pastiche of the UK Daily Mail’s obsession with UK royalty, such as the joint wedding arranged for JC and one of his male disciples on the island of Jolo. The wedding dresses and brides’ makeup are given the sort of glamorous, gushing treatment that paper devotes to the dress sense of Meghan Markle or her sister-in-law. In this sort of sweet beach boy and girl atmosphere, even amid Jihadist terrorists, nothing can now stop JC from fulfilling his father’s instructions, or can it? I encourage you to read the book to find out.
Leishman’s writing reminds me of one of my favorite comic and satirical writers, the Finn Arto Paasilinna. From me, that is high praise.… (meer)

From Grant Leishman comes A Drop in the Ocean, a charming tale of romance, deceit, and accountability for one's actions. Set between the Philippines and New Zealand, we follow the journeys of Teresa and Nick, two long lost pen-pals.

Having lost the contact they craved as adolescents, both try to move on and find romance, but neither finds what they need in their partners. There is a recurring theme of emotional manipulation that sees both Teresa and Nick desperately cling to unhealthy relationships. This story warns potential readers of the signs of emotional manipulation, both in men and women.

At first, I disliked Teresa as she allowed herself to be used not only as a sexual object, but as a fall-guy for people in political power. I suppose that I also felt a similar way about Nick's character when he first marries. He allows his hopes and aspirations to disappear, clinging to the company of his new wife, no matter how dire his financial situation gets.

I enjoyed the author's style immensely. It made for fluid reading and gave a clear sense of the emotional roller-coaster of a journey that the main characters find themselves on. The plot developed at a steady pace and struck a good balance between descriptive language, dialogue, and action.

The only thing that caught me by surprise was the thirty-year time jump between chapters one and two as we hadn't gotten to know the characters yet. This was a finely crafted tale that I could not put down.

Recommended for lovers of romance.
Rated 5 stars.… (meer)

There are numerous doors within our minds, each leading to some otherwise unknown fear. Can you imagine facing your darkest nightmares? If not, then you're about to.

Paranormal Alley is a collection of dark short stories, written by a talented father and son tag team.
Amongst these stories exist strange relics, undead specters, and twisted ideas of justice.

I found that Grant's stories had strong character voices that made me relate more to the narrator and their plight, whereas his son Chris and his attention to detail transformed the grim into a depraved land that the living need not venture into.

I really enjoyed this collection and can see myself delving into another one soon. With possession, dimensional travel and much more, I could not put the book down.

If you're a fan of the paranormal, then may I recommend this book to you.
A sinfully dark read. 5 stars.… (meer)