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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creepy read!, July 5, 2006
Jude Allman has died three times. With each death and resurrection, his notoriety increased. To flee a spotlight he never asked for nor wanted, he vanishes from sight. He takes on the new name Ron Gress and moves to Red Lodge Montana. He takes a job as a janitor in the local school system and strives to maintain his anonymity. Life in Red Lodge isn't easy; he has problems with paranoia and struggles in social situations most people breeze through, but it's better than his life as Jude.
Then a woman named Kristina shows up at his doorstep. She knows his real identity and his carefully constructed world begins to rattle down around him. Long-suppressed memories bubble to the surface and begin to torment him. He develops a new *gift*-when he touches a dying stranger, their life is played back within his mind, in full color. Visions and blackouts become more common, further complicating his world. Kristina insists they are signs, while Rachel, mother of his son Nathan, is convinced they are symptoms of a physical or mental condition.
Then an elusive child stalker strikes Red Lodge. When local law enforcement and the FBI are stymied, Jude's gifts may be the only chance the missing children have. But now, when Jude needs his gifts the most, they may very well fail him.
T.L. Hines does a great job at getting inside the heads of his characters. His child molester scenes, written from the molester's point of view, are some of the strongest in the book. Some scenes, while not gory or graphic, may seem over the top to some readers. He doesn't soften the pure evil of this particular character.
Jude is another well-rounded character. Here is a man longing for a normal life, but he struggles with the simplest things, like giving his son a hug. It's the smaller struggles in the life of this unusual man that bring him to life.
Waking Lazarus is one of the few books that have given me the creeps. It is also a book that kept me guessing until the end the identity of the kidnapper and it was a revelation that was surprising, but plausible. I recommend this book; it's one that goes on my keeper shelf.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well-done debut novel... looking forward to more., July 29, 2006
One of the last "recreational reads" I had on my shelf was the debut novel by T. L Hines titled Waking Lazarus. I heard about it during the writing process, and quickly put myself on the hold list at the library. It was well worth the wait...
Jude Allman has lived a number of lives... literally. He's died three times and come back to life after all efforts to resuscitate him were abandoned. You do that often enough, and you become quite a celebrity. But Allman didn't want that. In fact, he moved away, changed his name, and developed some rather strange psychotic behavior. He also fathered a child during a one-night stand, but he's never been able to be there for the kid. His self-imposed isolation starts to crumble when a woman shows up at his door, asking about his purpose after having died so many times. While he wants to just get rid of her, things start to change. He begins to experience an unusual ability to foresee death around him, and can visualize the process by touching the person. The mother of his child wants to chalk it up to seizures, but the fact remains that the foreshadowings are accurate. This coincides with a string of child kidnappings that are occurring in the local area, and Allman has to use his new-found powers in solving this mystery when it's his kid who's been taken. This is a position and power he doesn't want, but he now has little choice but to exercise its use...
For a debut novel, this is very well done. Any book that starts off with "The first time Jude Allman died, he was eight years old." is enough to catch your interest, and Hines doesn't give you much chance to put the book down after that. The interplay between his mental illness and his desire to be a real father to his child is an interesting conflict, and you can understand why he'd want to just make it all go away (both reality and his constructed existence). And while I thought I had the plot figured out a number of times, it turns out that things took off in a direction I didn't expect...
An entertaining read that engaged my mind a bit more than usual...
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful Prose from this First-time Novelist, August 5, 2006
Tony Hines has hit the ground running with WAKING LAZARUS. If you like page-turning thrillers, then get this book. I plunged into this story with the first sentence, "The first time Jude Allman died, he was eight years old."
This story is well-constructed and the characters come to life in this title. It's a clean, thoughtful well-told story and a departure for this publisher (Bethany House) since there is no overt spiritual theme (an implied spiritual theme is there but it's not spelled out like in many of this publisher's books)--which is OK--but something readers should know about for this story.
It's a great read and something I highly recommend. I'll be watching for more books from T.L. Hines.
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