The Ambition by Lee Strobel
Filled with scandal, corruption, murder and a couple of miracles, The Ambition is definitely a page-turner. Author Lee Strobel puts everything he's got into this first novel that won't disappoint his fans. He has taken his experience in law, journalism and religion to produce quite an entertaining tale. Strobel is a best selling author of Christian non-ficion. His Case books are very popular, though I have not read or heard of them before reading The Ambition. It seems he has quite a big following in the Evangelical Christian community who have found his non-fiction books helpful in their lives.
His strong Christian beliefs make there way into this novel as well, which is understandable since it is considered Christian fiction. His characters' beliefs are always shared and there is some preaching (amongst the characters). Though prominent, it doesn't get in the way of the story. In fact, considering the subject matter- it fits. The Ambition is also a thriller. As mentioned previously, there are mob hits, corrupt judges and possible scandals within a large Church. Strobel does a good job of weaving together these two seemingly different genres.
I had a couple minor issues. One- there are many characters to keep track of- a pastor looking to leave his church to get into politics, a corrupt judge, a gambling addict who is a disbarred lawyer, and a journalist looking for a story to help keep his paper afloat. I managed to get confused with who was who quite a bit in the beginning. Once I got more into the story, and their importance to the story revealed itself, I no longer had any issues following along with each character.
[SPOILERS]
Second, I would have liked to seen a little more bad in the good. What I mean is the characters that are supposed to be good guys were and the bad were bad. There wasn't much in the way of surprises in the end. The agnostic becomes a believer, the pastor returns to his flock, the gambler turns to God and the bad guys get caught.
[END SPOILERS]
All in all, it was an enjoyable read even for someone who doesn't normally read Christian fiction.
3.5/5
Source: publisher/publicist for review. Thanks to Anne of Authors on the Web.
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