Person of Interest

by J. Warner Wallace

Mr. Wallace is a cold case detective, nearing his retirement (and ironically that of his boss and good friend).  One case really bothered both his boss and Mr. Wallace, and as such this case becomes the carrot at the end of the stick - if they can solve this case, then they can both retire is relative peace.  

The tricky thing about the case before them though is that is a 'no-body, no-evidence collected' type of case.  A husband reports his wife missing and the police believed him, and as a result no evidence is logged in the case.  This is going to be an uphill battle, trying to go back almost a decade and prove what happened.  And prove it well enough to either prosecute the case, or put the matter to rest.

Simultaneously, Mr. Wallace has been resistant to church and the Bible his entire life.  He has scoffed at it, mocked it, and generally did whatever it took to avoid showing up at church.  But his wife, she is persistent and after three years of persuading him to reconsider and please go with her, he finally gives in.

What unfolds from here is a fascinating front row instructional manual on how this cold case detective solves the crimes that seem unsolvable.  He tells you definitions in little boxes on the side, anywhere from what it means to be a 'person of interest' to why word choices matter so much to detectives,  He even addresses whether jurors can (or cannot) trust 'old memories' as they surface in court cases.  He also takes the time to  meet head-on and explain the many, many skeptical arguments about Jesus and Christianity, for example the age-old question about how if God is really God, why does evil flourish and continue? 

 

Could the Bible be, in fact, true?  Or is just a collection of stories and historical events?  Did you ever stop to wonder why Jesus came when He came?  Why not a hundred years before or five hundred years after?  What was going on in that point of history that made that time so ideal, so important?  

This book is worth your time to read, and along the way, you get a front row seat, observing (literally it feels like you are finally able to be the proverbial fly on the wall) as this brilliant detective unwinds the fuse, trying to find out:  did this man Steve, did he really kill his wife?  Or did she in fact run away and manage to stay away all this time?  

Not many people could do what they suspect Steve of doing (if he killed her, where did he hide the evidence and/or the body?)  And not many people could do what she did (if she ran away and stayed away) - sooner or later some evidence that she's still alive would pop up.  After all, it is difficult, if not impossible, for people to totally become someone else without a glance back at their old life (friends and family) and for there to be absolutely not a shred of evidence that that happened.  After all, it has been nearly ten years now...

This is an amazing book.  I highly recommend it.  I am almost done with the New Testament (in more than 90 days 😀) as well as The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee and Created for Commitment by Audrey Wetherel Johnson - but will write separate reviews for each 💖.