Cathedral Review
A Catholic, a Lutheran, and an Anglican walk into an auditorium, all surprisingly ready for action and adventure. Ray Keating’s newest series, “An Alliance of Saint Michael,” is an action thriller staring various Christians, of various denominations, coming together to fight ideological evil. Did they originally hope education would be enough? Sure. Then they upped their game by entering into a race against terrorism and destruction.
Similar to his Stephen Grant series, Ray Keating creates a group of ecumenical & eclectic Christians, who work hard & smart to fight evil, this time during the rise of Communism during the 1920s and 1930s. The crew once again consists of a variety of talents including weaponry, business, sports, and, as Keating loves to do, theology! Education! Economics! If you’ve been a Keating fan for long, you may even laugh out loud at the love of baseball.
I enjoyed the details from the 1920s and 1930s. Rather than focusing on women’s fashion, there were insights into technological developments of the time, race cars, and a peak into Hollywood. Fun stuff. I thought the worldbuilding was good.
There was a slower section, when a number of characters were introduced, but that can be expected in setting up the background and dynamics of a series.
Make no mistake: this book is not socialist or communist-friendly. There was quite a bit of violence. Some sex. Disillusionment. Sometimes the bad guys seemed to be on a roll. Sometimes you even wondered about the good guys. Still, a good summer read, quite in line with Keating’s other works. Once again, priests and pastors play prominent roles.
This book sets up a series to come without a cliff hanger, which I appreciate, and I’ll look forward to more books to come.
