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Blue Night
This second novel by Martinusen (Winter Passing) fuses two seemingly unrelated stories one of a young American woman whose husband has disappeared, the other of members of the WWII Austrian resistance.
Ambitious in its scope and narrative complexity, the novel explores several well-developed themes, like fragmentation, treasure hunts and the color blue itself. While such structural care is usually the province of literary fiction, Martinusen crafts a historical novel with popular appeal and a memorable female protagonist. Novels by, for and about Christian women abound, but they all too rarely give us protagonists like Kate Porter, a woman who, despite tragedy, is managing beautifully as a single mom, business owner and amateur sleuth. Also satisfying is Martinusen's treatment of Nazis and the Holocaust; in particular, she resists telling a simplistic story of evil Nazis and saintly resisters and instead focuses on a Kurt Waldheim-like character and others whose histories include both Nazi involvement and commitment to more noble causes. Martinusen's gift for storytelling and passion for history add much to the world of Christian fiction.
Publishers Weekly
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A second novel is a terrifying experience - every book to some degree should be - like pushing yourself up a higher mountain. This book had higher suspense and had two very difficult POVs. (There were four POVs all-together.) One was a former Nazi guard who was seeking a way for redemption and another was a Nazi who continued to believe in his cause. Taking on POVs is very much like acting as you must get into the heads and think as your character does.
Then two weeks before this novel was due to my publisher, I completely changed the structure of the book. It greatly improved the book. There was also a major climatic question I didn’t have an answer for. But I just kept writing and trusting it would reveal itself. It did... as I was writing the moment the characters discover it.
With this novel, I started to understand the importance of trusting our writing instincts. |
