Olivia Hayden, a Hollywood star past her prime, crashes her car in a highspeed chase. Her doctor prescribes a medically induced coma for a week so her head can heal.
Kemp McAvoy is the ICU night nurse assigned to care for Olivia. But Kemp is ambitious. He’d once been “this” close to becoming a doctor–everything but his residency had been complete. Now he lives with fellow nurse Natalie Pelton and her daughter Leah, age 6. When Leah reports having seen an angel, Kemp gets the brilliant idea of messing with Olivia Hayden’s meds, thus convincing her she’s seen an angel and needs to write a book about it–a book he’ll only be too happy to help her with. Soon Kemp has Olivia’s agent and a struggling book publisher on board with his scheme.
But when Kemp’s past comes calling and Natalie begins to see Kemp for who he is, his great plan begins to unravel. The real question: Is Leah actually seeing angels, and if she is, what will those angels do to an impersonator in their midst?
Wonders Never Cease is written in distant third from multiple points-of-view, with Kemp acting as main character with the most screen time. Kemp didn’t even try to be a nice guy. He ignored and/or belittled the little girl while taking Natalie for granted WHILE delivering an elaborate hoax destined to make himself a lot of money so he could live the lifestyle he thought he deserved. Because I usually read to immerse myself in a character and vicariously live his or her life, I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as I’d hoped to. That’s not to say it wasn’t well written–it was–it just wasn’t really my cuppa. It’s an amazing cover, though!
I was given this book at the ACFW conference last September as part of registration. The author, Tim Downs was the keynote speaker at that conference. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Indiana University. After graduation in 1976 he created a comic strip, Downstown, which was syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate until 1986. His cartooning has appeared in more than a hundred major newspapers worldwide. His first book, a work of non-fiction, was awarded the Gold Medallion Award in 2000, and his third novel, PlagueMaker, was awarded the Christy Award for best CBA suspense novel of 2007. Tim lives in Cary, North Carolina, with his wife Joy.
