"He is William Case and he is alive. He has been fashioned for a purpose, so he is not to fear. The one who willed him into being will guide him to his destiny..."

Jordan Casey is about to begin teaching a college course, "An Introduction to Novel Writing." Thus far, she has earned herself both a healthy income and professional reputation as a crime novelist whose books are selling like hotcakes. The students who await her creative wisdom know neither the female identity of this writer nor the personal world that is about to alter her craft. One particular student within the first class indirectly challenges her to move beyond the formulaic plots that have guaranteed her a long lasting popularity. In other words, Mike Zappariello is implying her novels lack meaningful substance. This shakes her more than she initially realizes.

However, the magnificence of this novel lies in the way her own world begins to unravel with the illness of her son and how she begins to write that story in the guise of fiction with, of course, much more expansion and creativity than she has ever experienced or delivered to her readers.

Trust, terror, doubt, worry, and hope in all of its varying shades and images, fill these pages with a poignant tale that is so "real" the reader feels as if he or she were right there with Jordan.

William, the protagonist of the new novel, is learning about how deceptive creation can be - in this instance a computer game that turns out to be quite different from what it was initially designed to be. Indeed, it seems at one point to take on a terrifying life of its own. What unfolds, in Jordan's story and The Ambassador, explores where reality and fiction, creation and the creator, and absence or responsibility all overlap.

Writers, mystery lovers, heart-jagging story lovers, and anyone else - BUY THIS BOOK! Such originality is rare these days when the formulaic plot is basically what is selling on the top ten lists across the country. Relish here the true craft of story-telling in its most brilliant form!

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on March 14, 2006

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