Review of Between Lions and Lambs by N.T. McQueen

See full issue for 2015 11-16
 

The Rundown

Between Lions and Lambs explores the life of Ezekiel Clemens, the world’s most influential and famous evangelist, through his own memories and through the eyes of his “handler” and best friend, Gerry. The family dynamics of Clemens’ childhood with an abusive, alcoholic father–who also happened to be a respected preacher–have formed Clemens into a demon-haunted preacher running from himself and his past.

As the story delves into the past, it sheds light on Clemens’ relationship with Gerry–a brother surrogate who keeps the ministry running smoothly despite Clemens. The ties that bind them, forged from separate and shared past tragedy, have served as both salvation and detriment, particularly for Gerry. With dedication that is initially unfathomable, he cleans up the preacher’s many messes, and neglects his own young family miles away. As their past stories converge, we see that Gerry’s choices are not made as a victim of Clemens, but through a debt of loyalty long since paid.

McQueen’s strengths in telling this tragic tale is that he makes the reader care about these two men, even when they aren’t particularly likeable. The story’s twists, turns, and intrigue show clear mastery of plotting as he seamlessly weaves parts of the past and present into a complex and believable whole.

Yet, that was barely enough to keep me reading. The novel is, at best, a first draft. Rife with technical flaws from typos to grammar abuse, this book in its current state is a chore to get through. With myriad echoes in paragraph after paragraph, incorrect or imprecise word usage, it’s difficult to find any flow in the reading. While a thesaurus would have helped to eliminate the echoes, it needed to be thrown out in the many instances where it was apparently used without a dictionary to check and see if the selected word was used correctly or had nuances that made it inappropriate. . Even more unforgiveable and harder to tolerate were the numerous homophone errors: their/there/they’re, your/you’re, lead/led. Not once, not a few times, but over and over again.


The Recommendation

The appeal of Between Lions and Lambs is in the flawed and very believable characters and the tragic tale of the making–and breaking–of evangelical preacher Ezekiel Clemens. The multitude of basic English-usage and writing errors, however, leaves the reader feeling somewhat abused by the author. He clearly cared more about publishing than writing, or its essential partner, editing. Readers who don’t mind reading something closer to a first draft than a publication ready story might enjoy this, but don’t expect any polish in the story’s telling. It’s not there. Four stars for an intriguing plot and interesting characters, but one star for the poor quality of the writing, averaging out to 2.5.

 


The Rating Reviewer Rating: 2.5 Stars

2.5 Stars (out of 5): Needs work. This book has promise, and with the help of an editing team, it could easily be reworked into a professional manuscript.

The Pros & Cons

Pros: Characterization, Plot
Cons: Dialogue, Typos

The Links

More about Between Lions and Lambs on UBR

The Reviewer

Lynne Hinkey

Visit Lynne Hinkey‘s website.
 

Contact Us    Visit the original Underground
Quality reviews of independent literature from 2011 - 2018