Let My Daughter Go by Creston Mapes

Let My Daughter Go by Creston Mapes
Series: Book 2 of 6 in the Signs of Life Series
Publisher: Rooftop Press (June 1, 2020)

REVIEW BY GWEN M. PLANO

This contemporary religious fiction novel focuses on a kidnapping that echoes a prior string of abductions that eventually led to a massacre. The common culprit is a young woman named Willow who lives a hidden life on the Deep Web. In this story, she wants revenge and will stop at nothing to pay back the chief investigator who interfered with her plans and put one of her associates in prison.

As the story unfolds, readers are brought into the heart of hate – drugs, human trafficking, torture, and more. Through Mapes’s skilled writing, we feel this threat as innocent victims are preyed upon. One of the victims is the investigator’s special needs daughter, Leena. She is eighteen years old and works part-time at a fast-food restaurant. Though autistic, she is bright and knows how to protect herself.

They thought she was ‘slow’ or ‘retarded.’ She’d heard it all her life, spoken by ignorant people who didn’t realize she had two ears and a brain in her head. She was different, she understood that. But she was smart and creative and sharp and unique and wonderfully made by God. It was him who was her calm in the storm.

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. . .She knew what she knew. And what she knew was God was with her right then in that car—his spirit was giving her peace, making her wise as a serpent.

-Creston Mapes, Let My Daughter Go

Creston Mapes is masterful at creating believable characters and building heart-racing tension. In this fast-paced novel, one character stood out to me—Leena. Her limitations and deep-seated kindness moved me and stirred personal reflection. In scene after scene, this young woman resisted fear and trusted God. She even helped her abductor with his wounds.

I was impressed by Mapes’s ability to convey Leena’s simplicity and wisdom while being held by criminals who had no goodwill toward her. Through the use of interior conversations with God, Mapes revealed this character’s special relationship with the Divine, and he did so very effectively.

Let My Daughter Go is an excellent read for anyone who enjoys Christian thrillers. If you are like me, the story will keep your attention and prompt you to reach for the next book in the series. Because of a few editing hiccups, the book earns my enthusiastic four and a half fish.