The Open Channel

Full disclosure: Jill is a friend from a writing group to which I belong. Having said that, I'd give THE OPEN CHANNEL five stars anyway, simply because it forced even this diehard atheist to ponder light and dark, good and evil. The book's action shifts back and forth between contemporary Baltimore and medieval England. Eventually these disparate times and places merge for the climatic event: a "real life" battle between good and evil. But the book is more than swords clashing and bodies falling: she reminds the reader (even this diehard atheist!) *why* the battle matters, and what it is that makes ordinary life worthwhile. Wonderful stuff!

I read this in two nights flat, testament to how engrossed I was in The Open Channel. Shifting a good chunk of the action away from Baltimore to medieval Lincolnshire is a bold move and has paid off well. Jill Morrow is comfortable with the location and the convent and forest scenes are convincing. I felt I'd been taken somewhere very new and fresh. The Angel Café characters have aged and developed well and I felt this was one of the strongest features of the book. I'm really hoping a third novel will give us another glimpse of their struggle against the dark side of the psychic.