Intervention byTerri Blackstone is the kind of Christian Fiction a non-believer would find riveting.  The Covington Family has a crisis—eighteen
year old Emily is an addict. The book opens with an intervention. As a writer,
my mind is asking the question where will the story go after the intervention.
Emily is being taken from her home in Missouri by Trish, the counselor from a
rehab center in Atlanta. I imagine different story lines the novel could take.
Will the book evolve around Widow Barbara’s feelings at home? Will we be taken to the rehab center with Emily? Or perhaps we will watch her son Lance, spiral down into the same trap as his sister.

I wasn’t expecting where the plot actually went. Emily’s counselor murdered in her car at the Atlanta airport. Emily disappeared making her the prime suspect. Barbara and her son Lance go to Atlanta and search for
Emily, as well as interfere with the police investigation. Just when I thought
we’d found the real killer, there was something more.

Believable characters from personal experience

Terri’s characters were so believable. Barbara was very intense in her pursuit to find her daughter as any mother would be. At times she appears irrational and even rude.  Through her characterization Terri shows that Christians also react in the extreme when their family is in crisis. Barbara yells as well as lies, breaks things and her mental condition goes deeper to despair with every sleep deprived hour.

Terri has been willing to draw from her own personal experience as a mother whose daughterwent through the valley of drug addiction to bring us this story. The character of Emily portrays the sad truth so well. Her journal entries and comments show the reader how a drug addict thinks and reacts.
Bringing the reality that a Christian family’s struggle with addictions
is soul-wrenching.

Novels can educate

Unless we are involved in such a situation ourselves, we won’t
take the time to educate ourselves on addiction. However, we will pick up a
novel with this kind of story line. While walking through the experience with
the characters, we learn that subtle dispensing of information could save a
life. This story not only entertains, but can be used to minister healing to
readers going through the same valley. That should be is one of our goals as
fiction writers. What a challenge as aspiring writers to hone our craft to a
level where we are free to write from our raw emotions. Choosing story lines we
can relate to personally.

What books have you read recently that have captured your attention in the same way? What emotions did they evoke and what information did you glean?