James Scott Bell has already published several legal suspense novels before this one, and he won a Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction. He’s a former trial lawyer, and he’s now a professor of writing at Pepperdine University and a columnist for Writer’s Digest. I’m just a blogger and a reader, so who am I to judge?

Nevertheless, not having read Mr. Bell’s other novels but having seen the accolades he’s received for his writing, I think Presumed Guilty must be one of his weaker efforts. The plot is predictable: megachurch pastor Ron Hamilton is arrested for the murder of a porn actress whose body is found in the motel room where Pastor Ron recently visited her. He says he was “counseling” her, but the evidence indicates that the pastor and the porn star had a much more intimate relationship than that of counselor and client. He’s arrested, but, of course, he didn’t commit the murder. Or did he? If not Pastor Ron, then who is the murderer? And can his long-suffering wife, Dallas, forgive his indiscretions?

Dallas struggles a bit with forgiveness and reconciliation, but she prays about it, and then everything’s OK. All that’s left to resolve is how to get her forgiven husband out of jail and her shell-shocked son (veteran of the Iraq war) saved. There is a Judas in the story, actually more than one, and I won’t tell you who the villains are. If you read the book, I’ll bet you can figure it out for yourself before the great revelation is made. This book reads more like the script for a crime TV show made for TBN than anything else. (Do they have crime series on TBN?) In fact, it might make a good TV show episode or made-for-TV movie, but as a suspense novel, it lacks suspense.

Some of the themes in the novel are pornography, demonic oppression, and adultery. The book comes out against all three. I’m against all three, too. But that’s not enough to make me recommend this book for anything other VERY light reading.

I received this book from Active Christian Media for the purpose of review.