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Book Reviews​

2/2/2017

3 Comments

A Way Out of Hell

 
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Author: Jim Baton
Genre: Thriller/Suspense


“Just tell me what you want me to do.” Abdullah braced himself for the worst.

The Intelligence agent leaned back in the chair with his hands pressed together tapping his lips. “If ISIS is indeed here, I want you to find their terrorist cell and take it down. And I want you to do this…” he paused, “…non-violently.”

ISIS is threatening to destabilize Indonesia. In the city of Banjarmasin, Abdullah will need all his experience as a former jihadist and as a reformed peacemaker to save his city. His adopted daughter, Sari, a Christian university student, is one of the targets. She’s also the only one who believes Abdullah can succeed in overcoming evil with good.

In this riveting sequel to Someone Has to Die, Jim Baton introduces us to the real people caught in the web of terrorism, with their wide variety of backgrounds and motivations, and the possibility that they, too, can change.
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Reviewer: Carol A. Brown

Abdulla, a former jihadist turned peacemaker, offers vulnerable young jihadists a way out of the hell of terrorism they have gotten themselves into. And the clock is ticking...and not just the one on the bomb!

I loved this book! Can you say you love a book about violence when you love people and hate violence and terror? Well, yes, you can, because in this book peace wins. A Way Out of Hell is the sequel to Someone Has to Die. Baton keeps the pages flying with non-stop action & intrigue interwoven with delicate threads of loving-kindness. He expertly juxtaposes Christian ideals of non-violence and overcoming evil with good, with the blind hatred and violence of ISIS in the milieu of the cultural confrontation between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia. The story presents a model for turning a revolution into a reformation.

Compelling. Gripping, and technically flawless. Baton’s characters are lovable, admirable, and honorable. They have such depth that you want to know these people and call them your friends. Of course, the bad guys are equally well depicted so you want them to fail in their mission to create national instability.

I would recommend this book to anyone who reads YA and adult books, those who are interested in social and political issues, especially the challenges presented with how Muslims and Christians can live in community. The complexity of the issues, as well as the violence, in my estimation would be above children but could provoke serious thought for older teens.

3 Comments
Carolyn Klaus
12/28/2017 08:14:12 pm

As a Christian, I had heard Jesus’ commands to “love your enemies” many times. It hadn’t seemed to me a very practical approach to combating terrorism. But then, the evening news wasn’t showing me very much success from other methods.
Both A Way Out of Hell and the first book in this series of three, Someone Has to Die, demonstrate the author’s intimate knowledge of the many cultures of Indonesia—and of human nature. Carefully chosen details paint the characters and their environments with convincing reality. More impressive to me was the deep sympathy with which the author depicts the inner life of each of the characters—from terrorist to prejudiced pastor. I found myself empathizing even with the bad guys.
But this was not just a highly entertaining read. Baton packs a punch. Peacemaking, realistically, is difficult, risky, and costly. It is not for the faint-hearted or for hirelings. But as the Muslim former jihadist hero says, “The only true and lasting change happens when men’s hearts, like my own, are changed. And men’s hearts are never changed by fear, intimidation, control, threats, or violence. All of these only succeed in reproducing themselves in those we want to change. Fear produces hatred, hatred produces threats; threats produce violence; violence produces anger; anger produces more hatred, then more violence, and the cycle never ends. The only way toward true peace is to stop that cycle and start a new one. There is another cycle we can choose…” Baton has shown how this could work in the real world today. I’ll be thinking about this for a long time. I hope a lot of others--Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and those without religion--read this and do the same.

Reply
Laura link
12/29/2017 12:02:54 am

Sounds like a book to put on my reading list.

Reply
Cele Walker
1/1/2018 09:45:37 pm

I was so eager to read this book and see how Sari would make it through the trials of living a Christian life in Indonesia. This 2nd book in the series did not start or end as I would have liked, filled with happy life changing events. It is a raw reality of life that not everything happens in the way's we would like. And this book is filled with a seemingly realistic tale of life in a hostile land. What an inspiring work this is. I am anxiously awaiting the time I can read the next book in this series, secretly hoping joy will come and fill the lives of the main charioteers.
This book kept me sitting on the edge of my seat reading way into the wee hours of the night and getting up early so I could read. Yet on occasion I had to put it down for a day or so to digest the information and deal with the pain I could feel the people in the book were going through.
What a fantastic writer!

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