About the Book:
Ralph Norton, the brilliant CFO behind FASTRAK's meteoric rise, has created a world-changing innovation: The Word of God App, a revolutionary tool bringing scripture into the digital age. It's an instant sensation. But with success comes envy—and Ralph's ruthless CEO has a plan to seize the glory for himself.
Then Ralph vanishes.
Melanie Spenser, Ralph's girlfriend and daughter of a FASTRAK board member, refuses to accept the official story. Her search for the truth plunges her into a hidden world of corporate deceit, religious hypocrisy, and spiritual awakening.
Meanwhile, in Houston's forgotten streets, a homeless community rallies around a mysterious, broken man who speaks of redemption. Could this prophet be connected to Ralph's disappearance—and the future of faith itself?
In a society where belief is marketed like a product and spirituality is sold to the highest bidder, The Prophet of Lost Souls asks: can true redemption still exist?
My Review:
This novel explores several themes, one of which is making a good profit off the hunger of people for a spiritual experience. There is the presentation of a company that used Christian values to create an empire then abandoned those values in practice. The concept of an innovative app that helps individuals hear from God is intriguing. It made me wonder about the use of technology in our own spiritual lives. Slade adds other issues too, such as the contrast between the wealthy CEO of the Christian products company against the meager lives of the homeless.
Slade is a word smith. Some of his descriptive sentences are exquisite. And describe he does. He spends quite some space describing the thoughts of characters. Often the text consists of several paragraphs of prose with no action nor dialogue. I think fifty pages or so could have been cut from this novel without losing essential meaning.
The novel made me think about the whole Christian business concept, making money off of people's relationship to God. That was something I often contemplated while I was a Christian bookstore owner.
One might describe this as “Christian” fiction but there is quite a bit of foul language, something potential readers should be aware of. There is also descriptive violence.
My rating: 4/5 stars.
About the Author:
Andy Slade is a storyteller whose diverse experiences—from navigating the streets as a New York City taxi driver to working as a teacher—have given him a unique perspective on the dark undercurrents of everyday life. A Brooklyn native, he now writes from the high desert of New Mexico, a landscape that provides the perfect backdrop for his chilling tales of intrigue and betrayal. His sixth novel, The Prophet of Lost Souls, has been hailed as "a chilling tale of faith and fear" by BookLife Review. When he isn't exploring the complexities of human nature in his fiction, Andy can be found hiking along the Bosque.
(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)
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