Water's Edge

May 23, 2011
Christy Awardâwinning Whitlow (Greater Love) is a lawyer who knows his profession, as his newest legal thriller shows. Tom Crane is a hotshot young Atlanta lawyer who thinks he's about to become partner. Instead he gets pink-slipped, and dumped by his girlfriend, giving him lots of time to close out the smalltown law practice of his late father, who died in a boating accident. Circumstances slowly suggest that his father's death was not an accident; a second man who died in the boating accident has a beautiful daughter interested in the truth behind her father's death, and she's also an evangelical Christian. Characterizations are plausible, the mystery develops at a good pace, and the villain's a surprise. The Christian elements are heavy but not sappy; their centrality in the story will limit the potential audience to those already in sympathy with Christian fiction requirements. It's welcome relief nonetheless to have Christian fiction that doesn't center on romance, and Whitlow is certainly a competent writer.

August 1, 2011
In Whitlow's latest legal thriller, up-and-coming Atlanta attorney Tom Crane, still mourning his father's recent death, is blindsided when, in rapid succession, he loses his job (a key client jumps ship to another firm), and his girlfriend dumps him. He goes home to Bethel, Georgia, to wrap up his father's affairs, planning to get that done as quickly as possible, then go back to Atlanta to try salvaging something from the shambles of his career. But an unsettling discovery coupled with some hard-to-ignore suspicions keeps him in Bethel longer than planned. This is a solid, suspenseful thriller with an overt but not overpowering Christian theme, for in solving the mystery surrounding his father's death, Tom also confronts his own situation and faith. The religious theme is subtly handled and won't put off readers who prefer their legal thrillers to be nondenominational. For those who prefer a spiritual element in their fiction, this one deserves a hearty thumbs-up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)