I met Creston Mapes during an online meeting. His journalistic background and marketing knowledge impressed me. That encounter made me want to read something he had written. In the first part of Fear Has a Name: A Novel, the author captured my attention by introducing a journalist, Jack Crittendon, his wife, Pamela, and a stalker targeting her.
I appreciated the thread of Christian faith woven throughout the novel. As Jack and Pamela shared their struggles and fears, I felt closer to them as characters. Moreover, I sympathized with the stalker, which rarely happens when I read about a person terrorizing another character in literature or real life. But in this case, I felt compassion for a child who grew up without the love of a parent and was coping with bullies at school. The kid didn’t fit into his home, school life, or his parents’ hearts.
At the beginning of the novel, Jack’s dismissal of Pamela’s concerns over a missing Bible and handgun rang true. Nevertheless, ignoring his wife’s list of facts and fears elevated the conflict and raised the stakes for an immediate threat to Pam’s safety. Lastly, the plot twists at the end of the thriller made the ending more compelling. I wanted to keep turning the pages and didn’t want the novel to end.
If you like Christian Thrillers, Fear Has a Name: A Novel by Creston Mapes may be an excellent choice. Other suspense and thrillers you may appreciate are The Bone Box by Bob Hostetler, Breach of Promise by James Scott Bell, Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Life Flight: Extreme Measures by Lynette Eason, and If I Run by Terri Blackstock.
