Nobody by Creston Mapes

Ambrose Hudson is a night beat reporter for a Las Vegas newspaper. He had heard the scanner and got there before the police. He saw the homeless man, dead, blood on his chest. He waited for the police. Waited.

Then he made a decision that changed his life. He checked in the dead man's pockets for some ID. Maybe he could write a story with extra information. Maybe it would make his career.

What Hudson found would lead him on a chase for his own life.

There is plenty of action and suspense in this novel. We enter the world of the homeless in Las Vegas and those who minister to them. We learn that every homeless person, every “nobody,” has a story.

There are several of issues that are brought up in this novel. Hudson is angry at God for allowing his mother to die when he was young and his father to end up in prison. And Hudson is angry at his father for waiting too long to get medical help, when that help could have saved her.

Ambrose meets a young woman helping the homeless. She is a Christian and he is forced to deal with his anger toward God. She is also being beaten by her boyfriend so readers are introduced to that issue of abuse as well.

Two churches are contrasted in the novel. One is headed by a man who wants glory for himself. The other is a ministry that focuses on helping others and bringing them to the saving knowledge of Jesus. The motives for ministry in these two churches is very clear.

There is a discussion guide at the end of the novel which will give a reading group much to think about. Our motives for doing ministry would certainly be one of the discussion points. Another would be those spur of the moment decisions that get us into trouble later on. How do we hear and obey the warnings?

The only aspect of this novel I did not like was the ending. I felt like I was reading one of those westerns where all seems lost and the calvary comes riding over the hill at the last moment. While not unforeseen, the rescue was too quick, too convenient.

Creston Mapes has a degree in magazine journalism and has written for major corporations, colleges, and ministries. His stories have been featured in many magazines.

Learn more at www.crestonmapes.com.

I received an egalley of this book from the Litfuse Publicity Group for the purpose of this review.