Harry Kraus's Perfect ~ Reviewed

Perfect
By: Harry Kraus, MD
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN#: 978-0-310-27284-7

Back Cover:

Wendi Stratford’s job as an accident reconstructionist is just one more enviable reflection of her ideal life. She’s got it all—perfect career, perfect looks, perfect husband, perfect home, perfect faith. There’s just one problem: it’s all a sham, right down to her bleached-blonde hair.

So Wendi hatches an impulsive and exhilarating plan to break free of the lie she’s been living--- only to watch her hopes die in a terrible accident. But as she sifts through the wreckage, Wendi comes to a shocking conclusion. This was no accident.

The quest is on to learn the truth, but the truth could be deadly. And now someone is leaving Wendi clues at accident scenes, clues that could lead her straight into a killer’s hands. With her life on the line, Wendi must find strength in a faith that until now had been merely an accessory to her storybook life.

With engaging characters swept into a millrace of mystery and suspense, Harry Kraus’s new novel is ……perfect.

Review:

Wendi has always lived the perfect life. She is the perfect daughter, sister, and wife. However, appearances or never what they seem. At the beginning of the story she decides to stop living behind a fake smile, and reveal her true self. The results are spun through this enticing story of suspense, family, and God’s grace.

Perfect succeeds at reading like a perfect book as it develops the main characters perfect life that is now falling apart. Bodies start piling up around Wendi, and don’t stop until the very end. While she seeks to discover who nearly killed a close friend, she also discovers her true self. This discovery happens as she begins to look beyond the surface level of her husband, parents, sister, and herself. HIV, adultery, and drug addiction are a few other topics woven in the story.

I have heard it said ministers families live life in a fish bowl. People put them on a spiritual pedestal expecting them to stay there. The author demonstrates the reality of this in his well written story. He also shows how guilt affects people in different ways, in the difference between the heroine and the villain.

Perfect is a perfect mystery with a perfect spiritual twist. Reader Beware! Starting this novel at bed time will cause lack of sleep, because you won’t be able to put it down.

Reviewed by Shellie Powell