Randy Singer's faith-based legal fiction ranks right up there with the great authors of legal fiction. The Judge, which was originally published as The Cross Examination of Oliver Finney, may not be his best, but it's a good mix of suspense and thoughtful examination of faith.
Like a lot of decent books, The Judge is built around a rather ridiculous premise. First of all, a dying billionaire decides to sponsor a reality show on which participants, each representing a different religion, compete to see which religion comes out on top. Second of all, the Christian participant, a judge, has written a book defending Christianity which contains coded messages which he uses to communicate with his assistant.
The reality show, a Survivor-like affair where the contestants are isolated on a remote island, cut off from communication with the mainland, and which combines formal defenses of the various faith traditions with physical challenges, turns out to be rigged. Not only is the outcome rigged, someone is plotting to kill someone, but who is the killer and who is the target remains a secret.
The plot is manipulative and contrived, but nevertheless pretty fun to read. The "face-off" of faiths could have been more developed, but there were some nice hints of Christian apologetics woven into the story. I don't know if it's a sign of good writing, bad writing, or my own dim-wittedness, but the revelations and resolution came as a surprise to me. All in all, The Judge is full of surprises on many levels. I enjoyed it, but it didn't measure up to some of Singer's other work.
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