Nazareth Child - A review

As a trained investigator, Del Shannon tracked down one missing person after another, yet one proved more elusive than most, her mother. Having been taken from her Kentucky home as toddler by her father, Del
had never been able to put together enough information to discover her missing past, but with the death of her reclusive and alcoholic parent she has been given a chance to find out her heritage.
Turns out that the FBI are investigating the flamboyant cult leader Silas Rule back in Del’s home town of Nazareth Church and she is offered the opportunity to go in under cover to help the government discover if Rule is a blow-hard preacher or a Jim Jones figure leading his flock to eternal damnation, not to mention the last undercover agent they sent in has not been heard from for six weeks. Since Del has inherited the house in the community after her father’s passing, she has a legitimate reason to be in town to claim her property.
With ATFE agent Frank Falcone masquerading as her husband, the pair go into the lion’s den bent on discovering if the missing FBI agent is dead, or if Rule converted him to his right-wing zealot religion, and
for Del, a chance to ask the people of the area if they know her mother. Armed with an old photograph and a nine-millimeter Baby Eagle, Del heads out looking for her lost mother and runs into more trouble than can be expected.
Locked in the windowless church with all the preachers, other faithful followers, and with the dam at the top of the valley about to blow and flood the plains, will she ever get the chance she so desperately wanted or will the town be obliterated from Kentucky’s blue grass existence? James takes us on a wild chase to love life and redemption proving there is nothing to compare to a mother’s love. A great debut novel that will hold you spellbound to its dynamite conclusion.