Review
No Mere Cleric
Lionhearts: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel by Ray Keating
CreateSpace Independent
Publishing Platform, 2017
(352 pages, $16.99, paperback; $5.99, Kindle edition)
reviewed by Raymond J. Brown
Lionhearts is the seventh title in Ray Keating's Pastor Grant series, which recount the trials and triumphs of a Lutheran pastor whose former life as both a Navy SEAL and a CIA operative keeps reprising. In this latest episode, jihad comes to America, targeting the Christian Church first, with a long bucket list of other "infidels" to
follow.
Keating's novels are akin to John Ford's Stock Company in that some of the same characters—ordained churchmen, parishioners, CIA and FBI agents, and private citizens—repeatedly appear in the series and accomplish feats of derring-do against evil. There are always several moral and Christological themes, both personal and communal, informing each tale, along with some historical and political tutorials.
Interestingly, Touchstone magazine is mentioned in Lionhearts. Grant, the hero pastor, is a champion of mere Christianity whose two closest confidants are a Roman Catholic priest and a Continuing Anglican rector.
New in Lionhearts is that we learn something of Grant's past with the SEALs. We are also introduced to a new character in this book: the son of a former shipmate of Grant's who is now a fellow pastor. We expect to encounter this character again in a future book in the series, as we do a lady reporter whose professional engagements with the young and intellectual shepherd occasion shared danger and portend romance.
This is a good read. One must, however, suspend disbelief that the two main antagonists, given their relative youth and minimal command operational experience, could actually mount and execute the massive coordinated attacks depicted in the
novel.
Lionhearts can stand alone, but is best read after one or more of the earlier Pastor Stephen Grant novels.
Raymond J. Brown is Secretary of the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain, and a security consultant living in New Hampshire. He and his wife Susan, a librarian, have three grown children.
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