Review: Persecution by Ray Keating

Once again peeling back the shadowy layers of international espionage, author Ray Keating drops another explosive installment of his Pastor Grant series with Persecution.

When videos surface of Christians being executed in Iran, the American government and its intelligence agencies refuse to sit idly by, but geopolitical sensitivity is required, which means covert operations – and a blessing from the pope himself. With his sixth sense for danger and his penchant for finding himself in the midst of it, Pastor Grant and the secretive heroes of CDM are a natural choice for handling a deadly and top-secret mission. Quietly making a documentary exposing the abuses seems like a good idea, until the unexpected fallout leads to the threat of mass murder.

Grant remains at the top of his multifaceted game, dealing with mercenaries and terrorists as naturally as troubled souls in his church’s flock and traumatized victims in foreign lands. The emotional levels and links of the returning characters add familiar spice and tension, particularly between Paige, Grant, and Jennifer, not to mention the president of the United States. Nothing seems to surprise the perennial hero of this series.

As ever, Keating manages to thread the needle between scenes of intense action and passages of righteous philosophy, bolstered by an expanding cast of three-dimensional characters, both new and old. The dialogue sparkles with the sharp familiarity of old allies and friends, a mixture of respect, casual comfort, and emotional complexity. After more than a dozen books, Keating has built quite the interconnected web of characters, and can smoothly navigate his exposition through flashbacks to add even more depth to the story and characters.

The religious aspects of this series take center stage here, with Christians in multiple countries being targeted with violent persecution. Keating always manages to infuse spirituality into the series, but this torn-from-the-headlines premise turns a sharper lens on the perennial instability of religious devotion in the Middle East. Without proselytizing, Keating deftly explores the underlying motivations of this tragic drama, ultimately siding with righteous forces of western justice, but making space for the nuance so often eliminated in popular culture coverage of religious conflict.

The specific inclusion of Iranian villainy gives the novel particular punch, especially considering the present climate of intolerance and oppression for minority groups in that country. The intensity of the subject matter cracks even the most hardened operatives and politicians in this story, hinting at a visceral truth about our real-world leaders, who are so often seen as heartless and calculated in their decision-making, for a dramatic and sensitive take on complex issues.

On a technical level, the writing is accessible for all readers, despite the occasionally dense exposition or bureaucratic details of intelligence and military agencies. There are also occasional sloppy slips in grammar, punctuation, and spelling, and a tendency to overshare the emotional stance of characters on a given issue, rather than letting their dialogue or actions speak for themselves.

All told, aside from some small issues in execution, Persecution is a gripping and dramatic thriller that moves along at a blistering pace, making it nearly impossible to put the novel down before the final page.