Comes a Horseman

I picked this book up on a whim, every time I passed it something about the jacket cover called out to me, telling me  it would be a good read.  It was not 100% of what I was expecting.  Although I am not sure what exactly I was expecting from a book with Comes a Horseman as the title. Regardless, I picked up the book and it took me a few days to really get into the storyline, the beginning parts seems a lot like something else I have read in the past.  Almost right off the bat there seems to be so much going on, there is a murder mystery, a love story, and even a religious aspect and more, could it have possibly had too much going on all at once?


Brad Moore and Alicia Wagner are new detectives assigned to one of the biggest cases for their careers, the Pelletier Killings.  A string of murders that seem to have nothing in common.  As they delve deeper into the case, they realize the connection is something personal and deep rooted, a near death experience.    Now they have an idea of the murder connections they need to no figure out how to predict the killer's next move.  Soon they come to find out they are on his list, and must find him to bring him to justice all while trying to avoid his deadly axe.  While all of this is happening, in Israel Luco Scaramuzzi is working with Father Randall to convince a group of people known as the Watchers that he is the anti-christ.  They try to facilitate things to make sure Luco fits everything the prophecies predict.  He eliminates anyone who opposes him or gets in his way of achieving this goal.


Comes a Horseman merges both ancient prophecies and distorted religious viewpoints to bring about a story that is compelling and thrilling.  It was difficult to really get into the story at times.  This was probably one of the harder books for me to get through.  I was expecting more with the horsemen of the apocalypse, and was surprised with the references to Valhalla in the novel.  I wasn't sure where Robert was taking that story but I was pleasantly surprised.  The images Robert portrayed were well done and pulled the audience into the story.  I could almost see the severed heads of the victims.  Something I did find interesting in this story was the use of the computer equipment to process the crime scenes.  That is an element that I haven't seen in too many mystery novels, so it was a nice change of pace.

While I didn't think twice about borrowing this novel from the library, I don't think it will be one that I am adding to my shelves.  While it was an enjoyable book and I enjoyed the novel, it wasn't what i expected nor was it up to par with other Christian thriller authors like Ted Dekker whom he is compared to quite often.


Pros: Unexpected character development, vivid imagry
Cons: Moves along slow, seems like something else I've read
Bottom-line: I would recommend it if you want something good to read, but not if you want something fast paced.

Rating: 35. out of 5 stars