The partner, the youth pastor and the girl’s mother are all real portraits of everyday Christians. A short term partner on one of the jobs connects him with a youth pastor of a missing (and presumed dead) teen. He would have been fired long ago except for the fact that he used to be such a good cop.īut through several random assignments he connects seemingly different cases as related and pursues them doggedly. A personal tragedy several years before (not revealed to near the end of the book), affected him and his wife and threw his career for a loop.

He is not a Christian, if anything he is mad at God. It is clearly a Christian novel, but it is not a ‘hit you over the head’ with the gospel novel. So I do not completely blame Bethany House, I mostly blame Christian Fiction readers for not exploring different genres.īack On Murder has been well reviewed by a variety of Christian and secular reviewers. But he has publicly walked away from his book publisher (Bethany House) because they do not know how to market his books.Ĭhristian fiction is known for Historical and Amish Romance, not dirty cops and murder investigations. Mark Bertrand is the author of a trilogy of police procedural Christian Fiction books. And even more important, it has been used as an example of the potential and failure of Christian Fiction. But Back on Murder has been well reviewed by several people I know. I don’t read a lot of mysteries or police procedurals. Summary: A police detective that has been off his game finds his way back.

Back on Murder by J. Mark Bertrand