{"id":13169,"date":"2019-12-19T17:56:39","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T22:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=13169"},"modified":"2019-12-19T17:56:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T22:56:39","slug":"august-origins-by-alan-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=13169","title":{"rendered":"‘August Origins,’ by Alan Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s reverse sexism to pretend girls are never girls and never experience distress. That creates faulty and impossible standards, like magazine covers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Pending surprises,<\/strong> I\u2019m pretty much all in on Alan Lee\u2019s Mack August detective series now. And for some of you, that will be a sign of reprobation in me. Because these novels have Christian themes, but they are morally complex and there\u2019s a limited amount of full-blown profanity and obscenity. I don\u2019t think I\u2019d have the nerve to write books like these. But I\u2019m enjoying and appreciating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mackenzie August is a private eye in Roanoke, Virginia. He’s a former cop and underground cage fighter, also a former youth pastor and English teacher. He goes to church and reads the Bible, but is a work in progress, wrestling with how to be a Christian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August Origins<\/a><\/em>, the county sheriff comes to Mack\u2019s office, along with a local policeman, to request his help. A new drug boss has moved into town, and the street gangs have adopted a practice imported from California \u2013 each new member must \u201cmake his bones\u201d by killing an innocent teenaged girl. Three have died so far. They want Mack to go to work temporarily as a high school teacher, to try to figure out who\u2019s running the gangs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mack is always up for a challenge. He likes teaching and is\ngood at it. He cares about the kids and tries to help them. But he observes\nsome hinky stuff going on \u2013 and then the word spreads among the student population\nthat Mr. August is a nark. His life and those of some of his students will\ndepend on his identifying the drug bosses, and putting a stop to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also he meets a girl who fascinates him \u2013 Veronica \u201cRonnie\u201d\nSummers, local lawyer and part-time bartender. She\u2019s all he\u2019s ever wanted, but\nif he wants to be with her, he\u2019ll have to make a moral compromise he\u2019s not\nwilling to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some shocking elements in August Origins<\/em>, and the resolution is not very neat at all. But the effect is more realistic than what you\u2019ll generally find in Christian fiction, and that particular story line is not finished yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not for the squeamish, or those offended by profanity. But I rate August Origins<\/em> very highly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s reverse sexism to pretend girls are never girls and never experience distress. That creates faulty and impossible standards, like magazine covers.\u201d Pending surprises, I\u2019m pretty much all in on Alan Lee\u2019s Mack August detective series now. And for some of you, that will be a sign of reprobation in me. Because these novels have … Continue reading ‘August Origins,’ by Alan Lee<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[127,247,1731],"class_list":["post-13169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-alan-lee","tag-august-origins","tag-mack-august"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}