Cast the First Stone by David James Warren Review

Hello Friends :)

I pray today finds you all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.

I've mentioned quite a few times on my blog just how much I adore time travel books.

However, there aren't a lot of time travel books within the Christian fiction genre.

Anytime I discover a new one, I'm always excited to dive right in.

When I found out that Susan May Warren was writing a time travel police detective novel under a pen name with two other authors, I was instantly intrigued.

I couldn't wait to give it a try, and I was thankful there was a copy within the provincial library that I could request.

I'm going to preface this one by saying it ended up not being at all what I was expecting, and you can keep reading down below for my full review to find out why that was.

Cast the First Stone by David James Warren:

Source: Library

Publisher: Tristone Media

Publication Date: February 9th, 2021

Genre: Adult Fiction/Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

Series: The True Lies of Rembrandt Stone

Synopsis:

One case haunts him. One chance to fix the past. One mistake could cost him everything.

Ex-Minneapolis Police Detective Rembrandt Stone walked away from a career he loved—just the price of being sure he can come home to the wife and daughter he cherishes. But he can’t shake the deep regret over a case left behind.

When his mentor, the former Chief of Homicide dies and leaves Rembrandt with a box of cold cases and a mysterious watch, he finds himself thrust into a world he recognizes—a world from twenty years ago—the same world he’s woken from in a cold sweat a hundred times. But is it a dream, or some kind of twisted reality?

If he solves the case that plagues him, and justice is finally served, will it destroy the life he loves?

Strap in for a mind-bending, time travel thrill ride in Book One of this riveting new series, The True Lies of Rembrandt Stone.

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

I've been a fan of time travel stories for as long as I can remember, and I often lament how sad I am that there's so few of them within the Christian fiction market. When I heard that Susan May Warren was teaming up with two other authors to write a time travel novel, I couldn't have been more excited. However, partly due to my own lack of research, this ended up not being at all what I was expecting.

I've loved so many of Susan May Warren's previous novels, and I was expecting her to bring that same strong faith element into this one as well. I went in expecting faith, fantasy and a keep you on the edge of your seat mystery, and instead this one was more of a secular, grisly police detective thriller. That's definitely on me for not understanding what I was picking up to read, but it still left me disappointed because this had the potential to truly be amazing.

I did enjoy certain elements within this one, especially how much Rembrandt's character cares about seeing justice served on the many cold cases he was unable to solve. I also thought the plot was well paced, and I read the majority of this one in one sitting.

However, I thought it was too short for how much happens within the story, and I personally wasn't a fan of the way the time travel element was set up. It left more questions than answers for me, and although some of those questions may be answered in later books, I'm not invested enough to keep going on with the series.

Overall, I appreciated that it was clean and brought another time travel story to the table, but it wasn't what I was expecting, and it isn't one I ended up enjoying. It deals with a lot of dark and twisted content, and without the hope of Jesus to balance that out, it was personally too heavy for me.

Final Rating: 3/5.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys police thrillers, especially with a bit of a fantasy/paranormal element incorporated.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.

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