Avenger of Blood: A Novel (Apocalypse Diaries, 2)

This is a great read full of suspense and historical accuracy. It's satisfying to "learn truth through fiction."

Here in 'The Apocalypse Diaries', I think the first book, "Devil's Island", was better. This book was a tale of several couples love stories amid the tribulation of anti-Christian persecution in and around Rome. The birth of a couple babies makes you wonder how they will be featured in the next issue.

Avenger of Blood is the second of a series called `The Apocalypse Diaries', which tell the tale of one families' endeavor to survive the persecutions and torments against Christians in the early first century. Twins Jacob and Peter, along with their sister Rebecca, are the only survivors of their immediate family as this books picks up, after having survived persecution during Roman emperor Domitian's reign. Rebecca had endured the hell of Patmos, or Devil's Island, as it was commonly known, with John the Apostle. There, she was brutally attacked by a Roman officer named Damien and ultimately bore his child. Once home, it is up to Peter and Jacob, who suffered in different ways, to guide the family through their lingering grief and difficulties. Peter takes up the reins of the family shipping business, while Jacob, intent upon revenge, sets out to find and punish Damien, who reenters their lives just as they're trying to rebuild them.So begins this tale riddled with volatile emotions... faith and love and hatred and vengeance. It's a story filled with wonderfully developed, three-dimensional characters, replete with weaknesses and strengths, each of whom strive to find the right path to follow in life. A riveting, action filled tale filled with romance, suspense, murder and subtle history, all rolled into one, makes it one exciting book written of a rarely explored time period. What makes Avenger of Blood stand head and shoulders above so many others is the ability and depths to which the author deftly explores the doubts of this new faith that at times plague his characters. He does so with understanding and compassion for those characters, breathing life into them with extraordinary ease. An excellent plot and richly fleshed out characters coupled with a smooth and easily readable prose makes Avenger of Blood an exciting reading experience for young and old alike.