Book Review: Act of God

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Act of God     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Susan R. Sloan
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Warner, Apr 2002, $24.95, 530 pp.

For over five decades the Family Services Center have provided health service to many of Seattle’s unwanted or poor. However, someone takes exception to the facility providing abortion services among its medical practices and sets a bomb to destroy "Hill House" as the locals call the place resulting in over two hundred dead or severely injured. The city is shocked to its basic core especially when the bomb experts conclude that the culprit timed this deadly event for maximum destruction and death.

The police arrest Corey Dean Latham as the only immediate suspect with means, motive, and opportunity. The naval officer has never let go that his wife aborted their child without talking with him. Attorney Dana McAuliffe agrees to defend Corey Dean. However, the circus begins when the outsiders (media and extremists from both sides) try to take control of the issue for personal gain disregarding the legal and ethical rights of the dead, the family members, and the accused.

In ACT OF GOD the author shows why the abortion issue is loaded with emotional minefields so that both sides go to extreme measures to make their point, sometimes with tragic consequences. The story line is fast-paced and well written as Susan R. Sloan avoids preaching while furnishing a strong tale. However, Dana’s own abortion a few years earlier reduces some of the strength of the story with unnecessary baggage. Still readers who want a potent legal thriller focusing on an fervent yet mangled social issue will want to read Susan R. Sloan’s strong novel that the zealots on both sides will hate for providing a complete picture.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner