In this companion to Cold-Case Christianity for Kids, Jason uncovers a mystery in his grandmother’s attic. He and his friends, Hannah, Daniel, and Jasmine, enlist the help of Detective Jeffries at the Jr. Detective’s Academy. Along the way, they develop the skills needed to investigate the mystery and the evidence of God’s existence. The cadets learn logical-thinking skills as they examine the contents of a mysterious box and the vast universe.
InGod’s Crime Scene for Kids, real-life detective J. Warner Wallace shows kids ages 8 to 12 what skills are needed to solve Jason’s mystery, and at the same time looks at evidence in the universe that demonstrates God is the creator. Ultimately, kids will learn how to make their own case for God’s existence.
This read is a spin-off from the book Cold-Case Christianity For Kids but you will have no issue reading it as a stand alone. This is a highly inventive way to start kids thinking analytically but also learn about the Bible these both being profoundly important in their lives. Additionally, the book being an easy read for children, it is full of explanatory pictures that follow along with the story and activities that help you solve the case as you advance through the book. Therefore, these activities consist of reading passages in the Bible (CSI Assignment), learning new words (Detective Definitions), and the explanation of how an investigation works (A “TOOL” for your detective bag). How could this possibly get any better? There is an interactive website with videos and more activities in addition to "leader's guides" for adults to help the kids with their mission. Therefore, the whole family can participate!
This particular book is both groovy and education in multiple manners. Furthermore, providing quality bonding time with you and your child. Also, as an adult, I learned a great deal from it. I recommend this book to all children and adults who are kids at heart. God Bless and get a copy for a child you know today 👼
J. Warner Wallace is both a detective (currently working cold case homicides), a missions leader and a church planter. He started his career as a designer (earning a BFA from California State University at Long Beach and a Master’s in Architecture from UCLA). He eventually joined a law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County and has been a police officer and detective for nearly 25 years. Jim wasn’t raised as a Christian. In fact, he was a conscientious and vocal atheist until he was 35 years old and always considered himself to be an “evidentialist”. His experience in law enforcement only served to strengthen his conviction that truth was tied directly to evidence. But J. Warner eventually took a serious and expansive look at the evidence for the Christian Worldview and determined that Christianity was demonstrably true. After becoming a Christ follower in 1996, Jim continued to take an evidential approach to truth as he examined the Christian worldview. He eventually earned a Master’s Degree in Theology from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
J. Warner served as a Youth Pastor for several years, then planted a church in 2006. Along the way, he created and built the PleaseConvinceMe.com website, blog and podcast as a place to post and talk about what he discovered related to the evidence supporting Christianity. This adventure in apologetics has become the major thrust of Jim’s Christian service and now occupies much of his free time. Jim has appeared on television and radio, explaining the role that evidence plays in the Christian definition of “faith” and defending the historicity of Jesus, the reliability of the Bible and the truth of the Christian worldview. Jim also speaks at churches, retreats and camps as he seeks to help people become “Christian Case Makers.”
A deadly alien virus spawns an epidemic. Predators attack Europe. And a clandestine organization conspires to profit from chaos and forge a New World Order.
In this heart-pounding finale of the award-winning H.A.L.F. series, Tex, Erika, and the rest are in a race against time. They fought for their lives. Now they battle to save our species.
Tex and Erika are fugitives and running for their lives. But when Tex falls gravely ill, a Navajo healer is his only hope for survival. Tex emerges from the ordeal changed in body and mind and with vital information: how to stop the predatory M’Uktah from overtaking the human population and destroying those he has come to love.
Erika Holt seeks a respite from the constant threats to her life but she’s not about to give up. As she and Tex launch a mission to shut down the intra-galactic highway used by invaders who prey on humans, she grows closer to her troubled half-human companion. But what about her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Jack?
Jack Wilson, with his friend Anna Sturgis, is on a mission of his own. He’s determined to destroy The Makers, an illuminati-like organization behind the H.A.L.F. program. It’s time to put an end to their schemes for world domination. Complicating matters, an antiviral that could save millions from an alien virus has been stolen. As both alien and human forces line up against them, the destiny of all mankind is hand the hands of these young warriors. And time is running out.
Raindrops pelted the windshield of the rust-bucket truck Erika had borrowed from Ian’s dad. Nearly an hour had passed since she’d seen the lights of the last police car recede in her rearview mirror, but her fingers still shook as she turned on the windshield wipers. They were little help. The spittle of rain turned the dusty windshield into a muddy mess, and the sun-rotted rubber of the wipers streaked the glass.
Erika’s bottom was bruised from bouncing on the seat. Her wrists ached from gripping the wheel. After nearly an hour of rough riding, they hit a two-lane road going east. Erika was heading to New Mexico, where her Aunt Dana, her father’s sister, lived. Without complications, they would get to Aunt Dana’s in about eight hours. If she’ll have us.
Tex had been quiet but awake as Erika navigated the bumpy ground. Once they reached the smooth pavement, he tucked his knees to his chest, hugged his arms around his legs, and became a silent egg-shaped blob on the seat next to her. Erika had seen him withdraw into himself before, but he was even more quiet and still than usual.
Erika wished he’d have stayed awake longer. She wanted to pry answers out of him. She had questions about his time with the Conexus, when he had been linked directly to their hive-mind collective. Ever since Dr. Randall had unhooked Tex from the Conexus, he was acting distant and short-tempered. Erika wondered what had really happened to him during his time with the Conexus. And what did he mean when he spoke of struggles for humans to come and the knowledge he got from the Conexus? She hoped he would answer these questions and more when they got to Aunt Dana’s.
The dribble of rain became a hailstorm. Peanut-sized ice balls pinged the metal roof of the truck. Within minutes, the hail turned into a deluge. Erika turned the wipers to full blast, but that only smeared the windshield faster. The Tex blob remained eerily quiet and unperturbed.
Erika’s swollen right eye, a gift from one of the Makers’ guards during their escape from the school, made it difficult to see. Both eyes were heavy with fatigue. She blinked rapidly and shook her head, trying to clear the drowsiness. She switched on the radio, and raucous Tejano music blasted. She wasn’t a fan of the accordion-heavy genre. The ancient truck speakers distorted the sound, making it nothing but noise to her ears, but at least the booming music helped keep her awake.
Erika had never been much of a life planner. Her current situation of living day-to-day did not bother her as much as it might have irritated some people. She was focused on her current task, getting Tex safely to a location where he could heal. She’d help him find a place to stay hidden from the Makers and Sturgis. She wasn’t sure what came after that. Just stay awake. And alive.
Tex didn’t stir or acknowledge the radio. Is he dead? She poked at him with a finger. “Tex? You okay?”
With his head still to his knees, his voice was muffled but cool and even. “I am alive if that is what you mean.”
“You’ve been so quiet. With the escape back there at the school, the dogs, and now the rain… I was just hoping that you’re all right.”
Tex raised his head slightly and turned toward her, his large eyes peeking over his arm. “I have been through worse.”
The understatement of the century. She’d been through worse, too: the days of fever she endured after the Conexus gave her the virus, the long hours of watching Ian wracked with pain when she could do nothing but watch him inch toward death, weeks of hunger and thirst. She had been forced to take the lives of others or lose her own, and she had watched her mom breathe her last breath. They’d all been through hell and back.
Tex’s indifference was still better than silence between them. The tinny horns and the beat of the music stopped abruptly.
The radio announcer broke in, speaking in Spanish. “There has been a massive terrorist attack in Europe. The entire continent is without power. Communication systems are down. Though reports are sketchy, US authorities state that the attacks appear to be focused on London and Paris.”
Erika’s chest tightened. For a moment, she forgot to breathe. “He said that communication systems are down in Europe and there’s been a massive terrorist attack. The terrorists hit London and Paris.”
Tex unwound his arms from around his legs. “I understood what he said.” He sounded condescending, as though everyone could understand Spanish as well as English.
“Oh. I just assumed that—”
“You assume a great many things.”
Erika didn’t know what he meant, but she was more worried about what the heck was going on in Europe than her traveling companion’s surly attitude. The radio announcer spoke of the apparent sophistication and coordination of the attacks. He stated that the terrorists had clearly used an advanced technology that took out the power grid across Europe. Terrorists with advanced technology? Could the Makers be behind this?
Continuing in Spanish, the announcer said, “The US has raised the terrorist alert level to high and has closed all borders, effective immediately. There are reports of disruption to GPS and cellular service in the United States, indicating possible destruction or interference with multiple satellites.”
“Just what we don’t need. First, the virus to deal with, now terrorists run amok.”
“It is not a terrorist attack,” Tex said with total conviction.
“You just heard the guy say it’s a terrorist attack. He said the report came from NORAD.”
“Then this NORAD fellow is wrong… or lying.”
During her time at Casa Sturgis, Erika had lost most of her faith in the authorities. Getting locked up in an underground city run by crazy government scientists and black-budget military would do that to you. Even if The Makers were behind AHDNA, that didn’t negate the fact that, somewhere along the line, some important people were very corrupt. Maybe even a lot of people.
Even after all she’d seen, though, she still believed most of the people working for the government weren’t crooked, self-serving traitors who would sell out the lives of millions just for their own little piece of the post-virus pie. People like Dr. Montoya worked for the government. Dr. Montoya had risked her life to help them to keep the antivirus out of the hands of the Makers so it could be synthesized to help the masses rather than the elite few chosen by William Croft and company.
“Why would the military lie about terrorists?” she asked. “And if it’s not terrorists, then who would cause a massive power failure?”
“Something far worse than extremists with a vendetta. Pull over. I will drive now.”
“Have you ever driven before?”
Tex shook his head. “Pull over,” he repeated.
“And what do you mean ‘worse’?”
“Erika, I tire of questions every time I ask something of you. There is a helicopter on its way. You did not think that the Makers would send only a few local law-enforcement vehicles after me, did you? Shall we argue further? Or shall I attempt to lose those that tail us?”
Natalie is the author of the award-winning science fiction series H.A.L.F., and The Akasha Chronicles, a popular young adult fantasy trilogy with over 2 Million reads on Wattpad. She lives in Tucson, Arizona with her husband, teen daughter, and two cat overlords.
Natalie spends her time writing, reading, geeking out over nerd culture and cool science, and meeting readers and fans at book festivals and comic cons throughout the western United States. Natalie appears frequently on radio, podcasts, and vlogs such as The Speculative Fiction Cantina, Front Row Geeks and iHeart Radio.
Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind…
Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father — Pikeville's notorious defense attorney — devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night.
Twenty-eight years later, and Charlie has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer herself — the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again — and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized — Charlie is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it's a case that unleashes the terrible memories she's spent so long trying to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won't stay buried forever…
After being stuck in a slump of ho-hum books Karin Slaughter’sTHE GOOD DAUGHTEReliminated the cobwebs and dirt that had accumulated deep in the folds of my brain's white matter. This being the first book of hers that I have consumed I am with great impatience waiting to indulge in another. Why all this hype you ask? Well, I will give you a minute bit to munch on then it is imperative for you to get a copy to read, asap.
“The inmate has puked approximately four times over the last half hour. I gave her a pack of orange crackers and one can of coke served in a Styrofoam cup. I asked if she wanted medical attention. She declined. You’ve got fifteen minutes before I come back in.” She tapped the watch on her wrist. “Whatever I hear when I come in is what I hear. You got me?”
The character development is first-class all the way. Therefore, the characters come to life in your mind's eye each having a genuine human quality to them, yet each character is unique in their own. Such as, why Charlie and Sam called their mother “Gamma”, the sisters survived a horrific ordeal as children and even though the battle scars run deep they made it through to the other side, and Rusty even though he was not a saint of a defense attorney or a perfect father, I was surprised by his humor and civility.
The stinging of a thousand hornets ran up and down her leg as Sam made her way down the long, forlorn hallway. The sound of her shoes slapping hospital tiles bongoed along with the slow thumps of her heart. Sweat glued her hair to the nape of her neck. The twigs of delicate bones inside her wrist and ankle felt ready to snap.
Anywho, don’t be fooled by what I have so far written because this is one white-knuckled story. Hence, Slaughter has a knack for remarkably detailed gruesomeness as she is describing a grisly scene you can also feel the grit of bone exfoliating your skin. It is this ability with details that brings alive the story like blood pumping through veins. Furthermore, as the hair stands up on your neck and your nerves are wound so tight you keep forgetting to breathe, remember to leave a couple extra lights on so you don’t trip when a snack is needed at three am since who can sleep until YOU'RE FINISHED 🔫
Karin Slaughter is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of seventeen thrillers, including the Grant County and Will Trent series,COP TOWN,PRETTY GIRLS,THE GOOD DAUGHTERand the e-original short stories “Snatched” “Busted" "Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes" and "Last Breath."
Slaughter was born in a small southern Georgia community, and now resides in Atlanta. She is widely credited with first coining the term "investigoogling" in 2006 and is damn good looking.
Find out more about Karin at herwebsiteand connect with her onFacebook.
Published: August 8th, 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks
ISBN 0062431862
Paperback, 304 pages
It’s the summer of 1954, and the residents of Cottonwood, California, are dying. At the center of it all is six-year-old Danny McCray, a strange and silent child the townspeople regard with fear and superstition, and who appears to bring illness and ruin to those around him. Even his own mother is plagued by a disease that is slowly consuming her.
Sheriff Jim Kent, increasingly aware of the whispers and rumors surrounding the boy, has watched the people of his town suffer—and he worries someone might take drastic action to protect their loved ones. Then a stranger arrives, and Danny and his ten-year-old brother, Sean, go missing. In the search that follows, everyone is a suspect, and the consequences of finding the two brothers may be worse than not finding them at all.
I must admit that writing reviews for books that you equally like and dislike are mighty difficult since I struggle with writing reviews that don’t just repeat the blurb anyway. The book's plot even from the start was peculiar as the story progressed the plot proceeded to become outrageous at times. Certainly, I love a good thriller therefore in one hand, this plot might be a tad bizarre for some readers while on the other hand, certain readers would find it unique. Consequently, I am still indecisive about which hand I land in though I found it hilarious that the town of Cottonwood, California had one volunteer police officer/sheriff Jim Kent who was a plumber by trade. Indeed that is one crazy combination of careers. As for the quality of the actual writing, Mr. Burley has a specific style all his own. Hence, fitting for the story that was written. Such as, the fact that it took place in the mid-1950’s various unique aspects of that time were mentioned, which I thought was interesting, especially the way the phone system worked, Belladonna was in a medicated cigarette, everyone knew their neighbors, and straight out bigotry towards women in the workplace.
“Ordinarily, I’d have my secretary review the logs with you,” he said. “But I had two operators call in sick today-stomach flu and something else, I don’t remember-and she had to fill in at the switchboard.” He turned to them. “I don’t really understand how a touch of upset stomach is grounds for taking an entire day off, but”-he shrugged his shoulders-you know these girls, calling in at the slightest provocation. No doubt one of them is pregnant, and the other isn’t far off.”
Subsequently, in the book, there are surprises around every corner keeping you on the edge of your seat not knowing what strange subject or possibly monkey could come next. It is a quick, easy read so if it is not your cup of tea not much time was lost. Furthermore, If this is the situation, please don’t leave it to rot in a corner pass it on to someone who could possibly enjoy it! Whereas, if you enjoy the book pass on the knowledge and let me know what you think of it or my review
He was almost back to the porch when a wave of dizziness passed over him. His knees buckled and he pitched forward, caught himself with his hands as he went down on all fours. The gun went off in his right hand...A moment later, he noticed that the tips of both the index and middle finger were missing. He was surprised at how long it took the pain to surface. He left the gun where it was, stood, and climbed the four uneven steps to the porch. One the second one, it hit him an overwhelming agony in the hand that bent him double at the waist.
John Burley worked as a paramedic and firefighter before attending medical school in Chicago and completing an emergency medicine residency at University of Maryland Medical Center and the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. His debut novel, THE ABSENCE OF MERCY, received the National Black Ribbon Award, which recognizes a novelist who brings a fresh voice to suspense writing. His second stand-alone novel, THE FORGETTING PLACE, is available now.
