The Sacrifice

April 8, 2002
The third time's a charm for author and private attorney Whitlow, who has improved his inspirational legal thrillers with each outing. Though the pace in this suspenser begins on the leisurely side, Whitlow soon gathers steam, as a hate crime threatens members of an African-American congregation gathered for a baptismal service at Montgomery Creek in North Carolina. When the unappealing, tattooed adolescent Lester Garrison is arrested, attorney Scott Ellis takes his case, but finds himself increasingly put off by Lester's hatred of blacks. Even as new developments tempt Scott to believe his client is innocent, Lester's rage and bigotry show no sign of abating. Volunteering to coach a mock trial program at a local high school, Scott finds romance with a newly divorced teacher; he also discovers that one of her brilliant students has a dark side. The story's supernatural themes help build tension, as do plot twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. The CBA audience will appreciate the recurring motifs of the power of prayer and the social cost of absent parents and fragmented families. Whitlow's dry humor is appealing, and his character development is excellent—he manages to make even Lester worthy of readers' sympathy. A Columbine-esque scene in the final pages comes dangerously close to cliché, but Whitlow's careful, lucid prose keeps it both shocking and poignant. With this excellent novel, Whitlow makes a solid case for positioning himself as the John Grisham of the Christian market.

Starred review from June 1, 2002
Whitlow turns in another solid legal thriller with "The Sacrifice," about Scott Ellis, working his first criminal case in representing a client accused of perpetrating a violent racial incident. His client is a high-school student and might seem to be the likely suspect in a high-school shooting that the reader--if only from the jacket copy--knows is brewing. But there are other candidates, including a student acting as prosecutor in a mock trial Scott supervises at the request of the high-school principal. There he runs across an old flame who's going through a divorce, and their destinies, as well as those of several troubled students, become intertwined. Whitlow's legal thrillers are quieter and less concerned with hot-button issues than James Scott Bell's, but they are also more believable. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)