Author: Timothy Jay Smith
Publisher: Owl Canyon Press
ISBN: 978-0-9834764-4-3

In the Old Testament, Ezekiel 13:10 states, “Because, even they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter.” In Timothy Jay Smith’s second novel, A Vision of Angels, the land of Israel is under attack as the peace process is once again trying to protect its walls.

In this two hundred and ninety-four page paperback book, the story of a potential terrorist bomb in Israel is written. With profanity, both sexual and homosexual tones and depictions of prisoners being tortured, the book would be geared for mature adults or rated “R” if a movie. Using long chapters with a plethora of characters, a guide of those involved would be a helpful reference at the beginning of the tome.

Sometimes people are not what they seem. David Kessler is an American journalist who happens to be part Jewish and living in Israel, jumping at any chance he can to capture photographs of the humanness of war and the hatred and death between Israelis and Palestinians. Arab-Christian Issa and his Arab wife live within Jerusalem, struggling to make ends meet at their small grocery store as he yearns to be closer to where Jesus lived. Palestinian Amin Mosha owns a small family farm in Gaza, peddling his wares across the No Zone area to keep from starving. All three are caught up in a web of deceit, bribes and destruction that are beyond their control.

When Israeli Major Jakov Levy learns a bomb has entered Israel, he pulls all stops to track it down while he tries to protect his wife, his peace-promoting son, Mishe, and his young daughter. When Kessler takes a photograph of Mishe trying to save a young Arab boy from a skirmish, Levy is more irritated than proud.

Kessler is further caught up in the fray when he crosses into Gaza and interviews Mosha about truckloads of ripen tomatoes dumped in refugee camps when they are not allowed into Israel. Driving back across the checkpoint unknowingly with explosives, he becomes the pivotal person that links Mosha and unsuspecting Issa as terrorists.

With so many characters, sub-plots, confusing dream sequences and tangents about the Jewish Seder and Christian Easter, the reader easily gets lost in the dialogue and story of three different religions birthed in a highly volatile location. If the story would have been told through only Kessler’s viewpoint, it would have been so much clearer to the reader.

This book was furnished by the author for review purposes.

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