Tuesday, June 11, 2013

An Open Heart-Harry Kraus

An Open Heart


Harry Kraus

David C. Cook, Jun 1 2013, $14.99

ISBN: 978-0781405355



Missionaries’ son Jace Rawlings grew up in Kijabe, Kenya. At the first chance to flee the continent and his faith, he left Africa becoming a heart surgeon in the States. However, a scandal and his dead twin sister sent him home to open up a cardiac clinic while leaving his estranged wife Heather behind.



While driving, Jace runs over a goat. TIA (this is Africa). A boy asks for ten thousand shillings for killing his goat and a cop demands a two thousand shilling bribe. He refuses both and ends up as the only white person in jail. At the same time Jace is incarcerated, a parliamentary minister in Nairobi contacts Mzee Simeon Okayo the witch doctor in Kisii to perform a “Be Free” spell with a photo in the Standard of Dr. Jace Rawlins. Not long after the incantation, Jace is freed when miraculously the goat recovers. Returning to his clinic, Jace’s patients come out of anesthesia tell him that his soul is in peril from an evil. He begins to believe his terrible nightmares are a warning; his soul’s salvation can only come from one place but he also faces a lethal mundane threat too.



An Open Heart is an exhilarating thriller that works on the spiritual and worldly planes. The protagonist is a super lead as he struggles with his return to TIA while fighting to save his soul. Although the villains on two continents never quite gel, the insight into contemporary witchcraft (Dr. Okayo advertises herbal remedies for AIDs) and Christianity in modern day Africa make for a fabulous tale summed up by “Kenya (or any place) can be a scary place, if you don’t know the savior.”



Harriet Klausner

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